Although the composition is similar to that of several of Salomon de Bray’s biblical paintings, the style differs from his other drawings in the extensive use of hatching. The distinctive signature and precise date, 22 August 1648, are in the same hand as the drawing, so there is no reason to call its authorship into question, as Moltke did. The description of forms with thin, light lines is a characteristic of De Bray, but here (and perhaps in other sheets that have not survived) he decided for some reason to use hatching for the shaded areas rather than wash.
The previous year, 1647, Salomon had made a drawing of Diana and her Nymphs Finding Endymion, now in the Special Collections in Leiden University Library (inv. no. PK-T-122), in which hatching also plays a role in the background foliage, while the leaves in the foreground are broadly similar to those in the Amsterdam sheet. Rather than giving cause to doubt its autograph nature, the technique of the Amsterdam drawing is the more remarkable for being so rare in Salomon’s oeuvre.
Peter Schatborn, 1998
