Three Scenes from the Passion of Christ (recto); Architectural Sketch (verso)

1504

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Three Scenes from the Passion of Christ (recto); Architectural Sketch (verso) is a 1504 by Unknown, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 1504 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This drawing shows three quick scenes from a story about Jesus. On the left, soldiers march in armor, a crowd gathers, and a man kneels in prayer. Above them, a figure on a donkey rides toward a small building. The lines are sketchy, and the colors are faded browns and tans. The back of the paper has a rough sketch of a building with a red mark. The artist’s name isn’t clear, but the paper has writing like *"Luca della Robbia"*—maybe a note or a guess. Look up chiaroscuro next to see how artists used light and shadow like this.