Girolamo Muziano
(Brescia 1532–1592 Rome)
Capture of Christ
Inscribed at lower left, in pen and brown ink, P. vago; at lower right, in pen and brown ink, 60.R.
Black chalk, heightened with white gouache, on blue paper; squared in red chalk
9 3/8 x 9 5/8 inches (235 x 244 mm)
Gift of Janos Scholz, 1979
1979.5
Item description:
Of northern Italian origin, Muziano arrived in Rome in the mid-1550s and quickly established himself as a prominent painter and print designer, working for Cardinal Ippolito d'Este in the early 1560s and becoming a favorite of Pope Gregory XIII. Muziano treated the subject of the capture of Christ in several drawings and paintings. This sheet, however, which may date to the early 1560s, matches none of the extant versions. Here the central characters of the narrative, Christ and the two soldiers apprehending him, as well as the hand of Judas, are picked out with white highlights.