The Triumph of Christ 

Giovanni Battista della Rovere made this drawing, The Triumph of Christ, with pen and brown ink, accented by brown wash. It is a beautiful example of the draughtsman's art. The artist has created a dense visual field, filled with figures rendered in precise lines and subtle tonal variations. The penwork is confident, delineating forms and adding depth through hatching and cross-hatching. The brown wash is applied with a deft hand, softening the contours, evoking a sense of light and shadow. As a result, the drawing has a tactile presence, despite its relatively modest dimensions. Drawings like this were often made in preparation for larger paintings, perhaps intended for reproduction as prints. They stand apart for their immediacy, revealing the artist's hand, mind, and capacity to master a traditional technique. It serves as a reminder that, before the age of mechanical reproduction, skill and labor went hand in hand.