Study of the Head of an elderly woman

Domenico Ghirlandaio 1449 - 1494

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Domenico Ghirlandaio. The drawing is of the right side of a woman's face. The woman is wearing a headdress with a semi-transparent veil that falls down either side of the woman's face. Shading is built up on the portrait of the woman by lines of chalk of varying thickness. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "5. DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO (b. 1449; d. 1494) STUDY OF THE HEAD OF AN ELDERLY WOMAN Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, K.G., Chatsworth. Black chalk on yellowish paper heightened with white chalk, 36.6 x 22.1 cm. (14 7/16 x 8 11/16 in.). This is a study for the woman standing by the staircase at the left of the fresco of the Birth of the Virgin, in S. Maria Novella, Florence. On the back of the sheet is a study for the figure of a young lady, sometimes identified as Ginevra de' Benci, in the same picture. In the hatching Ghirlandajo here uses the chalk, as Berenson has noted, 'almost as a pen'. Though the touch might be more sensitive, and the determining lines of the portrait more energetic, Ghirlandajo's firm hold of essentials gives this drawing the authority of reality. L. B. [B. Berenson, Florentine Drawings, 1903, i, p. 113; ii, p. 46, No. 866. S. A. Strong, Reproductions of Drawings by Old Masters at Chatsworth, p. 5, Pl. 22.]"