The law of supply and demand may still drive the rest of the economy, but some parts of the art market appear as if that law has been repealed. Take, for example, Warhol paintings, where abundance — not scarcity — seems to generate value; or the astonishing number of Damien Hirst “spot” paintings — said to be 1,000 — whose ubiquitous presence at auctions drives prices forward, not back.

Now a less fashionable and press-saturated sector of the art market — Old Master Drawings — is looking toward the Contemporary art market for a lesson in attracting new buyers. On January 23, in the midst of Sotheby’s and Christie’s regular sales, Sotheby’s is offering a striking collection of Italian drawings assembled by Jeffrey Horvitz. Though it is one of the largest collections of drawings to appear on the market in a long time, Mr. Horvitz and Sotheby’s expect the sale to excite and energize the drawings market.

Old Master Drawings could use a little injection. Where the rest of the art market is still on a major roll, Old Master Drawings has only seen moderate increases. That, however, might be a good thing. “There are always some areas of the art market that go up more than others when things go up,” the director of Old Master Drawings at Sotheby’s, Gregory Rubinstein, said. “Old Masters don’t go up as much — but they don’t come down.”

One reason for that may be that the collector base has seen it all before. “Our clients are well-informed about scholarship and they’re savvy about the market,” the Old Master Drawings expert at Christie’s, Jennifer Wright, said. “Many of our clients have been collecting for longer than I’ve been alive. In some cases, they’ve been collecting for generations. It’s a passionate field.”

More than price increases, Old Master Drawings need new eyes that see the field as an opportunity to collect. “It would be nice to see new blood in the field,” Mr. Horvitz said. “Dealers need new blood.”

Traditionally, the Old Master Drawings market has seen a lot of scholars and other experts who are long on knowledge and short on cash. Drawings offer more affordable access to works by great artists from the past.

Drawings also offer an immediacy and proximity to the artist and his work that a finished painting is meant to lack. Drawings are akin to the contemporary studio visit, a way to get closer to the artist and experience his point of view.

Which is what attracted Mr. Horvitz. His unconventional career began on the East Coast. Despite a business school education, he found himself doing research in psychology and sociology as a graduate student in Los Angeles. An interest in prints led to an avocation, which in turn led to a collection. Mr. Horvitz eventually built two noteworthy and celebrated drawing collections: One concentrates on Italian masters; the other centers on French.

The highlights of the collection are Lelio Orsi’s “Apollo Driving the Chariot of the Sun,” estimated at between $200,000 and $300,000, and Federico Barocci’s “Study of the Head of a Young Woman Looking Down to the Right,” estimated at between $200,000 and $300,000. Mr. Horvitz also has a large group of drawings by both Tiepolos, Giovanni Battista (the father) and Domenico (the son).

Christie’s also has a group of Tiepolos, mostly by the father, from the Crocker family collection, including “The Madonna and Child adored by St. Anthony and an abbott,” estimated at between $80,000 and $120,000. There is a stunning Francois Boucher, “seated female nude,” estimated at between $200,000 and $300,000, and a Rembrandt, “Seated man, half length, at work,” estimated at between $150,000 and $200,000. Many of these works are so-called “finished drawings,” sketches made for a market for drawings that existed while the artists were at work. The star lot in Sotheby’s main sale of Old Master Drawings is Fra Bartolommeo’s “A double sided sheet studies of heads,” estimated at between $800,000 and $1.2 million.

That number is a function of several attributes. The drawing contains many studies, several of which appear in a major painting by the artist, and the artist is a significant figure. Fra Bartolommeo is “just one tiny step away from Raphael,” Mr. Rubinstein said. “And if it were by Raphael it would have another zero.”

It’s rare for a drawing to break the seven-figure barrier, but the slow-and-steady Old Master market does have its share of heavy hitters in the area of paintings. Sotheby’s has kept its January painting sale together with the drawings. On January 24, it will auction off pictures by Lucas Cranach the Elder, including “Portrait of a Young Lady Holding Grapes and Apples,” estimated at between $1.5 million and $2 million. Because he lived so long and had such a large studio and output, Cranach tends to be undervalued. An upcoming important show in London and this spectacular picture, which is from a date early enough to ensure that it was painted by the master himself, combine to make this estimate. “The incredible clothes, the beautiful hat, the gorgeous girl, and the beautiful landscape,” the chairman of the Old Master department at Sotheby’s, George Wachter, said in praise of the work.

Jan Brueghel the Elder’s “Still Life with Tulips, Irises, Narcissi and Fritillaria in a Clay Vase,” estimated at between $2 million and $3 million, is another star of the sale. “You see lots of landscapes,” Mr. Wachter says of the Brueghels. “But a great Brueghel still life is a rarity and a great thing to find.”