Portrait of Bartholomeo Ehrenfüller(?)
Medium
Brush and brown wash, black chalk, tacked down to white board.
Dimensions
6 1/8 x 5 3/16 in. (15.5 x 13.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.95.2813
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate portrait drawing, created in 17th century by an anonymous Netherlandish or Flemish artist, captures the likeness of a man possibly identified as Bartholomeo Ehrenfüller. Rendered in black chalk with brush and brown wash on a modest sheet measuring just over six inches tall, the work exemplifies the intimate scale often favored for preparatory studies or personal keepsakes during the Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque periods. Such drawings allowed artists to explore subtle gradations of light and shadow while working quickly to convey character and presence. The medium itself ...