St. Christopher

The two-sided sheet represents St Christopher who is depicted on the recto, carrying a child on his back – The Infant Jesus – and, on the reverse side, is shown walking alone with a city seen in the background. The graceful, billowing cloak swirling behind him, with its deeply undercut folds and shading done in short pen strokes, suggests its origin in the Upper Rhineland. This type of drawing technique was common in that region in the 15th century. St Christopher was the patron saint of pilgrims, popular from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The drawing represents the saint in a commonly portrayed fashion – as a huge, bearded man in a flowing mantle, who is wading through a river, leaning on the trunk of a young tree, carrying a small boy on his back. Although the river is not depicted in this drawing, there is no doubt that the figure represents this saint. The fortified town with a Gothic cathedral depicted in the background is particularly deserving of note.