Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • Collection
  • Collection Research
  • Past Exhibitions
  • Watch / Listen / Read

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

A black chalk study of Malchus and the apostle Peter. An anguished Malchus stretches rightward as he fights against Peter’s outreached hand, which appears from off sheet on the left.
A black chalk study of Malchus and the apostle Peter. An anguished Malchus stretches rightward as he fights against Peter’s outreached hand, which appears from off sheet on the left.
A black chalk study of Malchus and the apostle Peter. An anguished Malchus stretches rightward as he fights against Peter’s outreached hand, which appears from off sheet on the left.
Previous image 1 2 3 4 / 4 Next image
  • A black chalk study of Malchus and the apostle Peter. An anguished Malchus stretches rightward as he fights against Peter’s outreached hand, which appears from off sheet on the left.
  • A black chalk study of Malchus and the apostle Peter. An anguished Malchus stretches rightward as he fights against Peter’s outreached hand, which appears from off sheet on the left.
  • A black chalk study of Malchus and the apostle Peter. An anguished Malchus stretches rightward as he fights against Peter’s outreached hand, which appears from off sheet on the left.

Anthony van Dyck

Study for Malchus

Description

Maker

Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599-1641)

Title

Study for Malchus

Year

ca. 1618-1620

Medium

  • Black chalk on laid paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Black chalk on laid paper

Materials

black chalk

Supports

  • laid paper

Dimensions

24.5 x 37.2 cm (9 5/8 x 14 5/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Inscribed in pen and ink LR: "Ant. Vandijck"

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke

Object Number

20.443

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

Old Master Drawings from the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Alt Author: Johnson, Deborah J.

  • Books

Selected Works

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer
Four Hundred Years of Drawing from the RISD Museum
Mar 12, 2022 – Sep 04, 2022

Label copy

This drawing is a study for a figure in Anthony van Dyck’s large painting The Taking of Christ. The servant Malchus is depicted in a moment of struggle, just before the apostle Peter cuts off his ear with a sword. Van Dyck confidently outlined the contours of the dramatically foreshortened figure with fluid, unbroken marks. For the shading, he used tightly packed and regular parallel hatching, which he softly blended in the lighter areas. Spare in its use of materials, the study achieves a remarkable effect of movement.

From Dürer to Van Gogh
Gifts from Eliza Greene Radeke and Helen Metcalf Danforth
Jun 05, 2008 – Oct 26, 2008

Label copy

This drawing is a compositional study for a painting depicting the betrayal of Christ that the artist presented to his teacher, Peter Paul Rubens. The subject of the sketch is Malchus, servant to the high priest of Jerusalem. According to the Gospel of John, Peter severed Malchus’s ear with a sword during Christ’s capture in the Garden of Gethsemane. Van Dyck depicted Malchus’s struggle with Peter, whose hand is visible at left grasping Malchus’s clothing. Van Dyck’s strong direction of line, most obvious beneath the figure, reinforces Malchus’s violent gesture.

Design and Description
Renaissance and Baroque Drawings
Jan 27, 2006 – Apr 09, 2006

Label copy

Van Dyck created this sketch for the figure of Malchus in his painting Betrayal of Christ, now in the Prado Museum, Madrid, and reproduced below. Malchus was the servant of the high priest of Jerusalem. According to the Gospel of Luke, Peter severed Malchus’s ear with a sword during Christ’s capture in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Van Dyck depicted Malchus struggling with Peter, whose hand is visible grasping Malchus’s clothing at left. Van Dyck’s strong direction of line, most obvious underneath the figure, reinforces Malchus’s violent gesture.

Drawing the Line
Mar 30, 2001 – Jun 10, 2001

Label copy

This drawing is a preparatory study for Anthony van Dyck's painting Betrayal of Christ, now in the Prado Museum, Madrid. It shows Malchus, a priestly attendant, attempting to avoid an assault by the apostle Peter, who will soon slice off Malchus's ear. Much of the point of the drawing is to generate a sense of lateral thrust away from Peter's hand, which grips Malchus's tunic at the left of the image. To achieve this aim, van Dyck aligns various parts of Malchus's body on a diagonal axis and rhymes them with broad, insistently diagonal, shading strokes. In counterpoint, short, stubby marks interpret the outstretched hand as a point of splayed stoppage. A careful look at the contours reveals that they are not made with a continuous line, but with many short concave strokes that give volume to the figure.

Treasures on Paper
Drawings and Watercolors from the Permanent Collection
Jun 13, 1989 – Aug 19, 1989
  • More Exhibition History +

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599-1641)
Study for Malchus, ca. 1618-1620
Black chalk on laid paper
24.5 x 37.2 cm (9 5/8 x 14 5/8 inches)
Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke 20.443

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use