Stående soldat med lanse i en niche. St Longinus? 1561 - 1630

Giovanni Battista della Rovere made this drawing of a standing soldier with a lance in pen and brown ink sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century. The figure could be Saint Longinus, the Roman soldier who, according to Christian tradition, pierced Jesus with a lance during the crucifixion. Della Rovere, who was from a family of artists, was working in Milan at a time when the Catholic Church was looking for ways to reinvigorate religious sentiment following the Protestant Reformation. Paintings and sculptures were seen as powerful tools for communicating religious ideas and inspiring piety. The figure's simplified form and the niche that frames him suggest that this drawing was made as a preparatory study for a sculpture. Such drawings offer insights into the relationship between artistic institutions and the making of art. Examining drawings like this one in the context of religious and artistic institutions reveals the complex social forces that shaped artistic production in the period.