Antonio de Pereda y Saldago (Burgos 1611 - 1678 Madrid)

This drawing is part of a series of 17th-century Spanish works relating to the Ars Moriendi, a devotional Medieval exercise practised throughout the Counter-Reformation, which illustrated the different moments in the Christian preparation for death. Each drawing represents a parallel with an episode of Christ’s Passion which is shown as pictures within a picture (see Z. Véliz, Spanish Drawings in The Courtauld Gallery, Complete Catalogue, London, 2011, under no. 18): in the present work an angel points to an image on the wall which illustrates the episode of Christ washing the feet of his disciples.
Stylistically, the drawing is close to another work by Pereda for the same series showing a very similar scene, today in the Louvre Museum, Paris (inv. no. RF43250; L. Boubli, Musée du Louvre. Inventaire general des dessins: Ecole Espagnole XVI-XVIII siècle, Paris, 2002, no. 116).