Most of the drawings in this fascinating album are black chalk studies of heavily draped male figures, executed ‘dal modello’, together with a few compositional studies, some inspired by Raphael, and a handful of landscape drawings.  The album has been filled from both ends, having perhaps been abandoned for a while, and a lot of pages in the middle of the book are left blank.  It must date from Minardi’s early years in Rome and these drawings are still the expression of the experimentations of a young artist.  Minardi arrived in Rome in 1803, where he met Felice Giani who introduced him to the studio of Camuccini.  The influence of Camuccini is clearly detectable here, especially in the very neoclassical and stylized landscape drawings. Some of the figure studies and  compositional drawings also show Minardi’s fascination with the work of Raphael, a lasting influence for the whole of his artistic career. Minardi was a very influential figure in the academic world of 19th-century Italian art; he appreciated good draftmanship and from 1822 was appointed to the chair of drawing at the Accademia di San Luca, a position he held until 1868. Minardi instructed generations of painters in Purism and more than any other artist promulgated the taste for neo-Raphaelesque altarpieces.