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The Departure of the Prodigal Son

Karel van Mander I

30 cm × 36 cm

About the size of an open laptop. You would need 5 of them to reach a person's height.

Against things you know the size of

Height: 36 cm
Width: 30 cm
Medium: pen and brown ink with brown wash heightened with white on laid paper
Kind: Drawing
Where the measurement comes from: Measured by the museum. The dimension is the one recorded by the institution that holds the work.
Credit: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Five questions, answered from its own record. What is AGAI?

How big is it?: 30 cm × 36 cm. About the size of an open laptop. Measured by the museum.
When was it made, and when is it everyone’s?: It is in the public domain, and National Gallery of Art publishes it for open use.
Whose is it?: Everyone’s to see. It is held by National Gallery of Art: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund.
How was it made?: Pen and brown ink with brown wash heightened with white on laid paper.
Who speaks for it?: Its record at National Gallery of Art. Measured by the museum. This gallery adds nothing it cannot cite.

The gallery's walk hangs a selection. This work can hang in a room of its own, with five works that hang well beside it, at their real size.

One email. The smallest thing in the collection, the largest, and two that hang well together.

Scored on colour, shape, era and scale, the same way the gallery hangs them.