Study for Cardinal Niccolò Albergati

This silverpoint drawing is Van Eyck's preparatory study for his painted portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, made during the cardinal's visit to Bruges in 1431 on a diplomatic mission between the Emperor, the Pope, and the warring French and English crowns. The drawing, now in Dresden, is annotated with Van Eyck's own notes about the colors to be used in the subsequent painting — a rare survival that documents his working method and his way of translating the immediate drawn record of a sitting into the considered tonal gradations of his oil paintings. The annotations reveal a painter thinking analytically about color as tonal value rather than as local hue.

The silverpoint on prepared paper demonstrates Van Eyck's extraordinary draftsmanship, with delicate lines building precise physiognomic detail and marginal color notes that serve as a bridge between observation and the finished oil portrait.