Tra eccezione e convenzione: Il disegno a metà

The volume explores the drawing practice of the half drawing and its possibleimplications, taking as its starting point a small exhibition of architectural drawings, which includes the oldest known sicilian example of this type, preserved in the Municipal Archive of Gangi. The relationship between the symmetry of the subject and a mode of representation based on the mental ability to conceive an imaginary mirrored reflection-allowing fr a saving of both time and paper in the production of elevations and plans-is examined trough a series of drawings dating from the Renaissance, when this practice may have originated, to eighteenth century. Its diffusion in both printmaking and in drawings attached to contractural agreements-situations in which the practice allowed for reduced effort and the possibility of offering multiple proposal- as well as the ways in which drawings were preserved and collected, with the habit of pasting cut-out drawings into personal albums, all contribute to making the half drawing a subject of study worthy of close attention