Ecce Homo.

Drawing, pen and brown ink with brown wash, 25,4 x 18,8 cm, mounted on 18th-c. paper, signed "Martin de Vos" by later hand at bottom left corner.

Under passe-partout.

Christ is presented to the people from a balcony. He stands wearing a crown of thorns and holding a reed at left. Pontius Pilate washes his hands nearby. In the foreground a crowd jeer and a small child points. The drawing is copied by a talented contemporary artist after an engraving by Hendrick Gotzius, from his "Passion" series. The shadows and hatchings of the engraving have been skilfully transmitted in brown wash, without loss to the original depth and linear quality of the design. Since the orientation of the drawing is not reversed, the chance that the drawing is a preparatory design by Goltzius is slim. The Museum der bildenden Künste of Leipzig (inv. N.I 44) has a reversed signed drawing in black chalk. At the beginning of the 17th century, both Ludovicus Siceram and Abraham Hogenberg published a copy after Goltzius' print series. Our drawing possibly played a role in this transmission process.
Ref. New Hollstein (Goltzius), 17-28. - Hollstein VIII:28. - Hollstein IX:1-12. - Reznicek, "Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius", Utrecht 1961, p. 249-250, nr. 40, afb. 269.