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"I Am Holding a Wolf by the Ears" (verso)

French early 16th Century

1514

ink

paper

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance

Dominant colour

"I Am Holding a Wolf by the Ears" (verso) is a 1514 ink by French early 16th Century, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.

Who painted this?: French early 16th Century
When & what style?: 1514 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: National Gallery of Art

About this work

This drawing shows a person standing barefoot on a patch of grass, wrestling with a wolf. The person’s arms are wrapped around the wolf’s neck, while the wolf’s front paws grip the person’s legs. The background is simple—just a few bushes and a wavy line for the ground. The lines are dark and precise, with some gold highlights adding a little shine. The title on the back, *"I Am Holding a Wolf by the Ears,"* hints this might be a playful or symbolic scene. The artist used ink and gold on paper, which was a common way to make drawings stand out in the early 1500s. Next, look up cross-hatching to see how artists build shading with layers of lines.

About the artist

Artist

French early 16th Century

A French draftsman from the early 1500s filled sheets of laid paper with tiny, sharp-tongued instructions—ink sketches paired with warnings like “Do Not Eat Your Heart Out” or “Feed Not Things That Have Sharp Claws.”…

See the richer artist page