His dismissal of the artist's drawing multiple images on
the page or the use of both sides of a sheet, show his lack
of knowledge about the era. Paper was not available by the
ream then, and was a valuable commodity.
How I would have loved to see them myself!
When a tour of artifacts from the Sistine Chapel stopped in Cincinnati recently I had the pleasure of attending with my wife's church group.
I was delighted to find many works of Michelangelo's in the collection and they had a very large mock-up in which you walked through that showed how "He" painted the Chapel ceiling using scaffolds and such.
It was costly but I would pay double to see it all again!
Paper is still a valuable commodity.
Good quality water color paper is not cheap. I paint on both sides if I'm not happy with side A - I use side B.