St adrian, chiaroscuro drawing. Pen and ink and brush, grey wash, white heightening, on grey prepared paper, 27. 2 (to tip of sword) × 18. 5 cm, louvre, paris. This drawing depicts st adrian of nicodemia (or nicomedia), a roman officer martyred in a d 290 after his conversion to christianity. The sword and anvil allude to the manner of his death: his hands were cut off and his legs broken on an anvil. The lion at his feet is the lion that by legend refused to attack him. Adrian's iconography made him the patron saint of smiths, so holbein's client may have been a smith, perhaps the swordsmith for whom he designed a coat of arms, which he rendered in the same style (müller, 218). Date: c. 1520–22. Collection: Louvre Museum.
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