Verso of the first Sketch King Cambyses

Gerard David produced this preparatory sketch as part of his work on the Judgment of Cambyses, a famous diptych depicting a corrupt judge being flayed alive. This verso (back side) drawing reveals David's planning process for one of the most gruesome paintings in art history, commissioned by the city of Bruges to hang in their town hall as a warning against judicial corruption.

The finished Cambyses panels, completed around 1498, show the Persian king ordering the punishment of a judge who accepted bribes. The unflinching depiction of the flaying made it one of the most disturbing images of the Northern Renaissance. This study belongs to the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, which holds important Northern European paintings and drawings.