Benjamin West, P.R.A. (1738-1820)

To compose the scene West took individual figures from Rosa's series of Figurine etchings. The ascetic figure on the left with the staff is taken from a ragged man with a staff and gourd (Bartsch 75); the soldier wearing a breastplate in the right background is a reversed copy of the left-hand figure in an etching of three warriors (Bartsch 60); and the helmeted figure in the right foreground is also a close quotation from the Figurine (Bartsch 51). The seated figure, holding a mirror or panel, appears to derive from the helmeted man's companion in Bartsch 51, and from a range of other seated figures in Rosa's series, although it seems odd that he alone should lack a direct prototype in the Figurine.