Peter Paul Rubens
1620
Oil paint on wood
19.2 x 25.5 cm
These are some of Rubens’s very first sketches for the same church commission as the colourful studies on the right. In one, the young biblical hero David prepares to behead the vanquished giant Goliath. In the other, a richly clad Pope Gregory looks up towards the clouds, where the Virgin Mary and Jesus would have stood.