Compositional Studies of Kneeling Figures and a Child
Repeated pen sketches of a Virgin and Child grouped with kneeling attendants
The sheet gathers several pen-and-ink trials of a devotional group, drawn in the round and repeated at different angles. Women kneel within round-arched niches while a central figure turns and reaches toward a small standing child, with further infants sketched at her feet. The drawings read as compositional studies working out the arrangement of a mother-and-child scene with adoring attendants.
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Kneeling women within arched niches
At upper left and lower left, women kneel inside round-arched niches, one bowing over a low support. The poses repeat a single devotional figure seen from slightly different angles. The framing arches set each figure within a shallow interior.
Central group of a woman and a standing child
In the centre a robed woman kneels and turns, extending her arms toward a small nude child who steps toward her. A second infant sits on the ground to the right of the group. The interaction is studied as a mother-and-child motif.
Repeated adoring figure and framing arches
At the right a further kneeling woman is drawn in finer outline, leaning forward with gathered drapery. The recurring arches and grouped figures show the sheet being used to test how the scene reads within a designed picture space. Lightly sketched infants and swaddled forms cluster below.