A Poet Reading

Master of the Playing Cards

National Gallery of Art

Printed with fine black lines on cream-white paper, a man wearing a knee-length tunic and reading from a piece of unfolded paper faces our right against a mostly blank background in this vertical engraving. The man's right shoulder, closer to us, is angled in a way that suggests his torso is turned slightly away from us even though his feet and face are shown in profile. A narrow wreath is almost lost in his dense curls, and he has a straight nose and prominent chin. His fur-lined tunic is belted low across his hips, and a dagger hangs from his belt. His pointed clog-like shoes seem to slip onto his feet like sandals, and he stands on a grassy field in an otherwise empty space. Creases in the paper he holds suggests it had been folded into nine sections.