(recto) Seated Bishop Saint Praying Before a Crucifix; (verso) the cropped figure of a youth seen in frontal view (somewhat damaged).
Medium
(recto) Pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk; original sheet is inlaid onto a collector's mount; (verso) pen and dark brown ink.
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 11/16 × 4 13/16 in. (17 × 12.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Martin Peretz, 2019
Accession Number
2019.579.1a, b
Art Historical Context
This delicate double-sided drawing, created by an anonymous Spanish artist between 1570 and 1620, captures a moment of quiet devotion on its recto. A bishop saint kneels in prayer before a crucifix, rendered with fine pen and brown ink lines over faint black chalk underdrawing. The compact sheet, measuring just 17 by 12.3 centimeters, reflects the intimate scale often used for devotional studies during Spain’s late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, when religious imagery played a central role in personal piety and Counter-Reformation devotion. On the verso, a cropped and somewhat damaged...