Man Protected by the Shield of Faith

Maarten van Heemskerck Netherlandish

Not on view

In this unforgettable image, a praying man, confronted by the temptations of worldliness and the Seven Deadly Sins (represented on the rug), is shielded from Satan's burning arrows by a personification of Faith. The drawing is one of about six hundred designs that Van Heemskerck created for prints. He may have developed the unusual subject of this print in collaboration with the religious philosopher and printmaker Dirck Volckertsz. Coornhert, who engraved this drawing and many others by Van Heemskerck, creating a clear visual means by which complex religious ideas could be communicated to a wide audience. The drawing exhibits the precise style that characterizes Van Heemskerck's print designs, while the composition and the dynamic, muscular figures reveal his emulation of classical sculpture and the works of Italian artists he studied during a stay in Italy in the 1530s.

Man Protected by the Shield of Faith, Maarten van Heemskerck (Netherlandish, Heemskerck 1498–1574 Haarlem), Pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk; indented for transfer; framing lines in pen and brown ink

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Man Protected by the Shield of Faith, Maarten van Heemskerck (Netherlandish, Heemskerck 1498–1574 Haarlem), Pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk; indented for transfer; framing lines in pen and brown ink
Man Protected by the Shield of Faith, Maarten van Heemskerck (Netherlandish, Heemskerck 1498–1574 Haarlem), Pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk; indented for transfer; framing lines in pen and brown ink
Man Protected by the Shield of Faith, Maarten van Heemskerck (Netherlandish, Heemskerck 1498–1574 Haarlem), Pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk; indented for transfer; framing lines in pen and brown ink

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