A Young Boy Seen from Behind, holding a sword and cap
n.d.
Medium
Red chalk
Dimensions
sheet: 16 1/4 x 9 3/16 in. (41.3 x 23.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Brigitte Laube and Charles and Jessie Price Gifts, and The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2009
Accession Number
2009.181
Tags
Art Historical Context
Matteo Rosselli’s *A Young Boy Seen from Behind, holding a sword and cap* captures a fleeting, everyday moment with quiet intensity. Created in red chalk on paper, the drawing presents a slender youth viewed from the rear, his cap tucked under one arm and a slender sword resting against his shoulder. The soft, velvety strokes of the medium allow Rosselli to model the gentle folds of clothing and the subtle turn of the boy’s head with remarkable sensitivity, revealing the artist’s skill at suggesting volume and movement through line alone. Active in early-seventeenth-century Florence, Rosselli...