Feeling

A young woman, unclothed, sits on a stone ledge and turns toward a group of heavily cloaked, hooded men gathered around a large open book resting on the rock. One bald elder studies the pages while a bearded companion looks up at her; behind them stands a cloaked figure beneath a banner, with a round shield and spear propped in the foreground.

Worked in charcoal with heavy, velvety blacks in the cloaks against the paper's pale ground, the smoothly modeled nude figure stands apart from the coarse, furrowed drapery of the men. Dramatic contrast and close cropping focus attention on the silent exchange between the woman and the elders, giving the scene a tense, theatrical charge.