German 14th Century

This artist doodled saints like they were your neighbor’s kids. They drew a boy standing calm with a leafy branch—no fancy robes, just a regular kid holding a twig. Flip to the *Coronation of the Virgin* in the NGA’s medieval room and you’ll see tiny crowned figures with the same loose, scratchy ink lines as the doodles. Why it matters: tap the *Standing Youth with a Branch* to see how a 14th-century sketchbook looked like a modern teenager’s notebook.