- Museum number
- 1895,0915.811
- Description
-
Portrait of an unknown woman; head and shoulders, turned and looking slightly to left, wearing a necklace and a veil, part of which is attached to her dress
Black and red chalk, touched with yellow chalk, with brown wash, on grey paper
- Production date
- 1470-1519
- Dimensions
-
Height: 393 millimetres
-
Width: 256 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Watermark: basilisk
As Popham noted in the interleaved copy of the Malcolm catalogue, this was etched by Hollar in 1645 as Monsignor ie. Bonsignori (R. Pennington, 'A descriptive catalogue of the etched work of Wenceslaus Hollar', Cambridge, 1982, no. 1613; New Hollstein no. 758). The BM drawing is cited by Agosti as an example of an early XVIc North Italian portrait in red and black chalk roughly contemporary with another anonymous drawing of the same kind, but not the same hand, in the Uffizi (427 E, Agosti, 2001, no. 36)
Lit.: J.C. Robinson, 'Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings by the Old Masters, forming the Collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch, Esq.', London, 1876, no 364 (as Palma Vecchio); U. Barbara Schmitt, 'Francesco Bonsignori', "Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst", XII, 1961, p. 123, n. 24; G. Agosti, in exhib. cat., Florence, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, 'Disegni del Rinascimento in Valpadana', 2001, under no. 36, p. 205; S, Turner, 'The New Hollstein, Weceslaus Hollar', III, Ouderkerk aan den IJssel, 2010, under no. 758, p. 63
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.811