Abraham Bloemaert

In his comprehensive catalogue of Bloemaert's drawing, Jaap Bolten suggests that the kneeling Monk depicted on the recto of the present sheet may well have been produced at the same modelling session as three stylistically comparable studies, all of which depict almost identical subject matter.¹

The rich application of red chalk, coupled with subtle touches of white heightening, is a graphic technique that Bloemaert particularly excelled in and the intriguing verso, which depicts a number of leg studies is, much like the recto, executed in this highly characteristic combination of media. Though Bolten suggests that the leg studies depicted in the present work were possibly intended for compositions like The Mocking of Christ,² the crossed pose of the legs, as well as the extended foot, located on the upper right edge of the sheet, all suggest that these studies more likely relate to a Crucifixion. Indeed a close comparison can be drawn between the pose of the central pair of legs in the present work and those found in Bloemaert's Angels catching in cups the blood of the Crucified Christ,³ though Bolten dates that impressive sheet some 15 to 20 years earlier than the ex-Haverkamp-Begemann drawing.

^1. Bolten, op.cit., p. 303, under no. 913

^2. Ibid., p. 74, no. 166, reproduced vol. II, fig. 166

^3. Ibid., p. 75, no. 168, reproduced vol. II, fig. 168