As Stan Parchin outlines in this special exhibition gallery, Made for Manufacture: Drawings for Sculpture and the Decorative Arts (on view at The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California from February 6 through May 20, 2007) consists of rare drawings. I'll see his "rare" and raise him "remarkable." Trying to draw objects in two dimensions, to be accurately reproduced by unknown craftsmen in three, is difficult even in the modern age of computers, calculators and programmable machinery. Now, just to compound the difficulty factor, when these drawings were created there were no such things as "mass production" or "industrial design" or even "factories." Instead, these artists had to create types of visual road maps for burly independent contractors who worked with forges, looms and chisels. Sort of makes you think, doesn't it? With this in mind, please enjoy the gallery.

Image credit:

Pedro de Mena y Medrano (Spanish, 1628-1688)
Study for a Statue of
Queen Isabella the Catholic, 1675
Black chalk, pen and brown-gray ink,
yellow, gray and red wash
34.4 x 23.3 cm (13 9/16 x 9 3/16 in.)
94.GA.82
© The J. Paul Getty Museum