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Preview image of work. brush and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk on paper,  Christ Among the Doctors 129
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1811.129

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Christ Among the Doctors

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Artist

Johannes van der Stradanus (Jan van der Straet, the younger) (Bruges, Belgium, 1523 - 1605, Florence, Italy)

Title

Christ Among the Doctors

Creation Date

after 1551

Century

16th century

Dimensions

16 1/8 in. x 10 15/16 in. (40.9 cm. x 27.8 cm.)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

Europe, Netherlands

Medium and Support

brush and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk on paper

Credit Line

Bequest of the Honorable James Bowdoin III

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1811.129

This drawing by Flemish-born painter Stradanus, who spent most of his professional life in Florence, depicts the twelve-year-old Jesus in 
the Temple in Jerusalem conversing from the lectern, the Bimah, with a multitude of attentive religious scholars (Luke 2:41-52). Mary enters from the right, intuiting the moment’s significance. The centralized classical architecture of Stradanus’s invention shows some features--such as the lectern, the arc for safekeeping the Torah, and the balcony--that characterize a sanctuary 
of a synagogue. Stradanus envisioned Christ teaching the Jews at about the time Pope Paul IV published the papal bull “Cum nimis absurdum” (1555), which repressed Jews living in the Papal States, made their attendance of Catholic sermons mandatory on Shabbat, instituted a Roman ghetto, and resulted in a migration of many to Florence. Sephardic Jews also flocked to Florence from Spain and Portugal until Cosimo de Medici installed a ghetto there in 1571. This work is believed to be a preparatory sketch for another, slightly larger and more developed drawing in the Uffizi, Florence.

Keywords: Christ   Biblical   figures (representations)   interior   work on paper   master drawing   preparatory drawing   Life of Christ