This sketch is the one hundred and twenty-third in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…
Day one hundred and twenty-three: This evening I was talking with some friends, and couldn’t take my eyes off an acquaintance’s fantastic shirt with a large angel and serpent-person creature. It appeared to me to be copied from a late sixteenth-century engraving, and if pressed, I would have guessed Hendrik Goltzius. With him in mind, I was browsing through an exhibition catalog looking for something to sketch, and low and behold, there was the engraving! It wasn’t made by Goltzius, but rather by another Netherlandish printmaker during the same period: Hieronymus Wierix in 1584. Today’s sketch is a detail of Saint Michael, who in the picture is overcoming Satan. The precision and detail in the original engraving is extraordinary, and I emulated it as much as I could in the time available.
A picture of the print can be seen at the British Museum’s website.
{ 5 } Comments