Battle Scene with Horsemen Fleeing from Avenging Angel
c. 1650
Medium
Pen with gray and brown ink, with brush and gray wash and touches of graphite, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
15 × 26.1 cm (5 15/16 × 10 5/16 in.)
Classification
ink or chalk wash
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
83780
Art Historical Context
Created around 1650 by Dutch artist Dirck Hals, *Battle Scene with Horsemen Fleeing from Avenging Angel* captures a moment of dramatic tension and divine intervention. Hals, best known for his lively genre scenes of everyday Dutch life, here turns to a more theatrical subject. The composition shows mounted figures in chaotic retreat before a powerful angelic presence, suggesting themes of judgment and retribution that resonated in the turbulent mid-seventeenth century. Executed in pen and ink with delicate gray washes on ivory paper, the drawing demonstrates Hals’s skill at conveying motion a...