Getty Museum
Saint Agnes (recto); Figure Studies (verso)
Creator
Adam ElsheimerGerman Artist · 1578–1610
All works by this person →> [O]ur entire profession... will not easily succeed in replacing him; ... he had no equal in small figures, in landscapes, and in many other subjects. > > --Peter Paul Rubens > > Elsheimer was born in Germany near where Gillis van Coninxloo had settled, and his early works recall Coninxloo's ornamental treatment of foliage and his fantastic forests. After settling in Rome around 1600, Elsheimer r
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1605
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink
- Culture
- German
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Against a sketchy landscape with a distant city in the lower left, the young Saint Agnes holds a lamb, symbol of her "marriage" to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The freedom and rhythm of this drawing, with its loose strokes and inky washes, all focus attention on Agnes's embracing gesture. A prolific draftsman, Adam Elsheimer often covered both sides of sheets with varied figures and themes rendered with his characteristically dynamic energy. Scholars generally connect the Saint Agnes drawing on the recto with a series of saints that Elsheimer painted on copper panels. He may have drawn *Saint Agnes* as a study for a panel in the series that was either lost or never made. The verso includes zigzag and tangled pen flourishes and a forcefully drawn study of a muscular nude and a reclining figure shown in sharp perspective. The abrupt cropping of the figures indicates that Elsheimer cut down and reused a larger sheet when he drew *Saint Agnes* .
The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.