Landscape with an Old Woman Holding a Spindle
1500–1564
Medium
Pen and brown ink
Dimensions
10-1/16 x 14-9/16 in. (25.5 x 37.0 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
Accession Number
1972.118.243
Tags
Art Historical Context
Domenico Campagnola (. 1500–1564), a Venetian Renaissance and engraver trained under Titian, crafted this delicate pen and brown ink drawing, *Landscape with an Old Woman Holding a Spindle*. Created during the early 16th century, captures a serene pastoral scene where a humble figure—likely a peasant woman—stands amid rolling hills and lush foliage, spindle in hand symbolizing everyday rural toil and the quiet dignity of domestic labor. The medium of pen and brown ink was ideal for Renaissance draughtsmen like Campagnola, allowing precise line work to evoke depth, texture, and atmospheric lig...
About the Artist
Domenico Campagnola · 1500–1564
Domenico Campagnola (c. 1500–1564), a Venetian Renaissance painter, engraver, and pioneering draftsman, was born around 1500, likely in Venice to German parents, and became a child prodigy under the tutelage of his adoptive father, Giulio Campagnola. Apprenticed to Giulio around 1507 in Venice, he mastered painting, drawing, engraving, and woodcutting from the esteemed Paduan engraver, whose stipp...