Three Studies of a Woman Wearing an Elaborate Headdress
c. 1500
Medium
Pen and brown ink; retouched with brush and brown wash, lead white (partially oxidized)
Dimensions
12.9 × 12.8 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1987.31
Tags
About this artwork
This young woman’s long, conical hood is tucked under and pinned, with the front folded over to create wide, sloping flaps. Such headgear kept heat and cold away during outdoor labor, but around 1475, the style was adopted as a fashion statement by middle- and upper-class women, with the fabric starched for exaggerated effect. The drawing was likely made for a model book in an artist’s workshop of costume details for reference. More than 100 years later, the Antwerp artist Rubens acquired the dr...
About the Artist
Anonymous
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...