Study of the Head of a Young Moor
Artist / maker
Gaspar de Crayer (painters (artists))Date
ca. 1631 - ca. 1635Period
17 centuryCollection
Museum of Fine Arts Ghent
The Study of the Head of a Young Moor by Gaspar de Crayer is a highly detailed study of a head. The earliest known painting in which De Crayer used this head is his 1630 Raising of the Cross, an altarpiece which is now housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes. The Moor is shown as a young servant…
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The Study of the Head of a Young Moor by Gaspar de Crayer is a highly detailed study of a head. The earliest known painting in which De Crayer used this head is his 1630 Raising of the Cross, an altarpiece which is now housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes. The Moor is shown as a young servant helping to raise the cross. It is not known whether De Crayer painted the Study of the Head of a Young Moor from life. He may have been inspired for this work by the well-known negro heads by Peter Paul Rubens from the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Begium in Brussels, to which it shows some striking similarities. The work is probably a depiction of the same model that posed for various artists including Anthony van Dyck and Jacques Jordaens.
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