St. Peter Healing the Lame
Artist
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
(Dutch, 1621-1674)
Date1667
CultureDutch
MediumRecto: Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash / Verso: Graphite
ClassificationDrawings
Credit LineMuseum purchase, 1977
Object numberSN957
A pupil and great friend of the seventeenth-century Dutch artist, Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout was a skilled painter, etcher, and draftsman. Known to work in the style of his master-particularly when executing biblical scenes-Van den Eeckhout gives us a rare view into the creative process. The recto and verso of the Ringling sheet betray two different compositional stages in the execution of the painting (San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor).
The verso is the first draft of the composition in which Peter and the lame man appear inside the Temple of Jerusalem with the Tables of the Law acting as a backdrop. In order to articulate spatial relationships and define focal points, Van den Eeckhout used stereoscopic projection-a complex perspectival system most typically used by the Italians. The recto pictures the miracle taking place on the steps outside the Temple, just beneath the Golden Gate-the setting Van den Eeckhout ultimately used in the final painting.
On View
Not on view
Joachim Antonisz Wtewael
16th Century
18th century
