Artwork

Plate 2: Maddalena and Enrico, the Children of Pedro González (Petrus Gonsalvus)

Plate 2: Maddalena and Enrico, the Children of Pedro González (Petrus Gonsalvus) is a gouache drawing by the Renaissance artist Joris Hoefnagel. It dates from 1594 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

About this work

Overview

It portrays two children, identified as Maddalena and Enrico, the offspring of Pedro González, a historical figure noted for his excessive body hair.

Created circa 1594 by the Flemish artist Joris Hoefnagel, this miniature drawing combines watercolor and gold pigment on a parchment support. It portrays two children, identified as Maddalena and Enrico, the offspring of Pedro González, a historical figure noted for his excessive body hair. The composition is framed by gilded borders and Latin inscriptions, situating the work within the tradition of illuminated manuscript art.

Subject & Meaning

The figures are rendered in elaborate costume: the girl in a pink gown with a ruffled collar and a small crown, the boy holding a fur pelt and dressed in a hybrid child‑adult attire. Their solemn expressions, pale complexions, and vivid red lips suggest a dignified, perhaps moralizing, presentation. The Latin phrase “Praise the Lord” that runs along the top and bottom of the piece adds a devotional layer, linking the portrait to religious sentiment.

Technique & Style

Hoefnagel employs a meticulous watercolor technique, building color through successive glazing to achieve subtle tonal variations. Gold paint outlines the borders and accentuates decorative motifs, while the surrounding space is left largely unfilled, emphasizing the central figures. The artist’s characteristic attention to botanical detail appears in the finely rendered foliage that frames the children, reflecting a near‑scientific observation of nature.

History & Provenance

The drawing originates from the late sixteenth‑century period when manuscript illumination was evolving into new artistic genres, such as floral still‑life. Hoefnagel’s work exemplifies this transition, merging portraiture with naturalistic detail. The piece has remained within collections of early modern drawings, documented in catalogues of Hoefnagel’s oeuvre, though its precise ownership trail before the modern era is not fully recorded.

Context

Pedro González, known historically as Petrus Gonsalvus, suffered from hypertrichosis, a condition that made him a subject of curiosity across Europe. By depicting his children, Hoefnagel engages with contemporary interests in physiognomy and the exotic, while also situating the portrait within the broader Flemish tradition of integrating scientific observation into art.