sketches

Day three hundred and forty-one: I spent some time this afternoon browsing through boxes of prints by anonymous artists from the 15th and 16th centuries. There were many interesting sheets, both peculiar and lovely, and largely forgotten. My sketch this evening is based on a detail from one striking 16th-century Italian engraving of Christ healing a blind man. While the name of the artist is unknown, it is clear that the artist had a strong, practiced hand, and an eye for ancient forms. I love the rugged, classical curls that heroically wrap Christ’s head like a wreath. Because I used pencil, my lines appear more like those of an Italian etching, rather than the bold, tapered lines typical of an engraver’s burin.