Saint Agnes (recto); Figure Studies (verso) (Recto)

Against a sketchy landscape with a distant city in the lower left, the young Saint Agnes holds a lamb, symbol of her "marriage" to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The freedom and rhythm of this drawing, with its loose strokes and inky washes, all focus attention on Agnes's embracing gesture. A prolific draftsman, Adam Elsheimer often covered both sides of sheets with varied figures and themes rendered with his characteristically dynamic energy. Scholars generally connect the Saint Agnes drawing on the recto with a series of saints that Elsheimer painted on copper panels. He may have drawn Saint Agnes as a study for a panel in the series that was either lost or never made. The verso includes zigzag and tangled pen flourishes and a forcefully drawn study of a muscular nude and a reclining figure shown in sharp perspective. The abrupt cropping of the figures indicates that Elsheimer cut down and reused a larger sheet when he drew Saint Agnes.