The formulation of the concept of a sculpture usually meant beginning with an analysis of various ideas in numerous preparatory drawings and bozzetti. Only a few of what must have been countless numbers of these drawings and models survive, but they clearly demonstrate the nature and intensity of Bernini's working method. The most important groups of drawings are in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, and in Rome at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and the Gabinetto delle Stampe. The drawings - primarily pen, chalk, or pen over chalk - are remarkable for their freshness and vitality, recording with bold, spontaneous lines the essence of a figure or architectural detail.

Bernini occasionally produced highly finished drawings and models, so-called presentation pieces. Such works were used to obtain project approval from the patron or as guides for assistants in the preparation of full-scale statues.

Bernini made various kinds of preparatory drawing, from summary but dynamic compositional sketches to more careful studies of particular details, but he also produced independent drawings. Closely related in style to his known portrait paintings are portrait drawings. There also survive some religious compositions. His pioneering caricatures delighted his contemporaries and broke new ground in the art of social satire.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	Caricature of a Man Pointing - Pen and brown ink, 129 x 104 mm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
	Caricature of a Cavalier - Pen and brown ink on laid paper, 207 x 145 mm The Morgan Library and Museum, New York
	Caricature of Scipione Borghese - Pen and brown ink Biblioteca Apostolica, Vatican
	Grotesque Head 1672-75 Red chalk, 195 x 202 mm Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
	Design for the Tomb of Pope Alexander VII c. 1670 Pen and brown ink and brown wash over graphite on laid paper mounted on paperboard, 233 x 168 mm Museum of Art, Philadelphia
	Study for an Equestrian Statue of Loius XIV c. 1669 Pen, wash, and watercolour, 270 x 385 mm Museo Civico, Bassano del Grappa
	Design for a looking-glass c. 1656 Pen and brown wash over black chalk, 230 x 188 mm Royal Library, Windsor
	Monstrance - Pen, wash and Indian ink on paper, 211 x 161 mm Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
	A portrait of a Man c.1630 Black, red and white chalk on buff paper, 410 x 267 mm Royal Library, Windsor
	Portrait of Sisinio Poli 1638 Black, red, and white chalks, on light brown laid paper, 270 x 207 mm; addition 62 mm The Morgan Library and Museum, New York
	Self-Portrait 1675-80 Black and white chalks on buff paper, 413 x 271 mm Royal Library, Windsor
	Self-Portrait c. 1635 Black and red chalks, heightened with white chalk, 275 x 215 mm Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
	Sketches for a Wall Tomb with Skeletons (recto) 1630s Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk, 292 x 224 mm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
	Sketches for a Wall Tomb with Skeletons (verso) 1630s Black chalk, 224 x 292 mm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
	Study for the Glory, Cathedra Petri 1656-57 Black chalk and pen, with brown ink, 373 x 273 mm Royal Library, Windsor
	Sanguis Christi (Blood of Christ) 1670 Pen on paper, 386 x 247 mm Teylers Museum, Haarlem
	Studies for Daniel c. 1655 Red chalk, 378 x 238 mm Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig
	Emperor Constantine on Horseback c. 1655 Chalk drawing Museo de la Real Academia de San Fernando, Madrid
	Study for a fresco 1672-1675 Pen on paper Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig
	A seated male nude c. 1630 Red chalk on buff paper, 559 x 423 mm Royal Library, Windsor
	Study for the Fontana del Tritone 1630-39 Pen and brown wash, 319 x 263 mm Royal Collection, Windsor
	Study for a Triton (recto) 1642-43 Red chalk, 364 x 245 mm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York