Christ’s Charge to Peter

An offset from a preparatory drawing for the cartoon of Christ’s Charge to Peter. It was made by laying a blank, slightly dampened sheet of paper over a chalk drawing, and pressing or rubbing the two to produce a reversed impression. Offsets could be used during the preparatory process to monitor the final effect of a composition when the end product also reversed the design, as with mosaics, prints and tapestries, which are woven from the back.