Youth with an Earring

Description

A romanticized youth in 16th-century costume, wearing an earring. Painted during Drost's Italian period, this tronie was long attributed to the Sicilian painter Pietro Novelli before Sumowski identified it as Drost in 1990.

Analysis

According to a 2023 CODART paper by Irina Sokolova (Hermitage), this painting was attributed to Pietro Novelli until W. Sumowski established Drost's authorship in 1990 (Gemälde der Rembrandt Schüler, vol. 5, cat. 2036). X-ray analysis reveals beneath the visible layer another composition by Drost showing a young woman in semi-profile with flowers in her hair and a revealing décolleté — suggesting it was originally a different tronie. The appearance of this romantic youth in 16th-century costume conjures up associations with Renaissance images, demonstrating the Italian influence on Drost's late period.

Historical Context

Painted c. 1655–59 during Drost's Italian period, likely in Venice. The reuse of canvas visible in X-rays — an earlier tronie of a young woman underneath — testifies to the economic constraints Drost faced in Italy, where he lacked the workshop infrastructure and patronage network he had in Amsterdam. The 1650s saw a devastating plague outbreak in Naples (1656) that killed over 100,000 people, and Venice was in cultural ferment as the center of the Tenebrosi movement. Huygens patented the pendulum clock in 1657, revolutionizing timekeeping. Drost's Italian works show him absorbing Venetian color and Tenebrist chiaroscuro, synthesizing them with his Rembrandt training.