Simson Vanquishes the Lion

From around 1506, Albrech Altdorfer began routinely using dark-grounded papers for his drawings. The chosen ground was usually medium in tone, which he was able (or, on some occasions, obliged) to darken by applying ink, and lighten by means of white heightening. Drawings such as these were often created as artworks in their own right, with several versions produced of each, such as these two examples (see KdZ 87), which seem to share a near-identical composition. Furthermore, an examination of the two works reveals the significant degree to which they resemble one another both in terms of the technique and quality of drawing – indeed, it is not immediately obvious as to which is the original design and which the copy.