The Miracle of the Lame Man Healed by Saint Peter and Saint John

Sir Peter Paul Rubens over Anonymous Italian after Parmigianino after Raphael

National Gallery of Art

Drawn with brown ink and shaded with brown wash, a crowd gathers in a columned space on this horizontal sheet. Two columns divide the scene into thirds. The column on the left is straight, and the column on the right twists, as if gently rippling in an elongated spiral. A row of four more columns behind each of these front columns mimics their contours. Between the two front columns and close to us, a clean-shaven man and a bearded man look down at a man who sits with one ankle crossed over the other knee. The seated man looks up with his mouth open, the corners downturned, and his brows furrowed. The bearded man holds one hand up, palm facing out, and the clean-shaven man looks down with one hand reaching forward, palm up. Three more faces between the clean-shaven man and the twisting column look on, and one of them crosses his hands over the top of a crutch or walking stick. Three more people press close to the group on the right side of the twisting column. One nude, pudgy child holds onto one of the onlooker’s robes, and another nude child stands next to a woman along the right side of the sheet. The woman looks over her shoulder at us and appears to balance or brace a tray on her head. A bird is painted in slate blue on the tray. The child braces a stick across one shoulder, and two birds hang at the ends of strings on the back end. Five people stand, including a woman holding a baby, to the left of the straight column and a sixth person kneels and leans against a staff. More rows of straight columns line either side of the sheet.