Oordeel van Salomon 1542 - 1583

Anthonie Blocklandt made this drawing of the Judgement of Solomon with pen in brown ink and grey wash. There’s a casual quality to the work; it’s clearly a sketch, a design for something larger. The drawing is quite free, in other words, but it is not artless. Consider the challenge Blocklandt set for himself: how to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. He uses the grey wash sparingly, but to great effect, to define the figures and add depth to the scene. See, for example, how he models the drapery, using shadow to suggest volume. This sketch would have been a step toward a more finished artwork, perhaps a painting. This mode of production, where one type of skilled labor feeds into another, was typical of the period. So, even a quick drawing like this one testifies to a division of labor and a hierarchy of value, which in turn was baked into the art market itself.