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Head of an old woman
(1640-1642)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
64.8 × 54.5 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1974
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Describing Guido Reni’s renditions of old men, his early biographer Cesare Malvasia wrote: 'Guido . . . modelled them with masterful dabs of the brush, adding thousands of delicate touches in imitation of those slivers of sagging skin that one discerns in nature’.
These words are applicable to this sensitive study of an older woman where the light captures the cracked, papery nature of ageing skin. It may have been a preparatory study perhaps for a figure of Saint Elizabeth or Saint Anne, where the lined skin of this old woman would have provided a foil for the sweetness of a young Virgin Mary.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
E2-1974
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
elderly grey (colour) half figures headscarves women (female humans) wrinkles
Provenance
With Hazlitt Gallery (dealer), London by 1974 from which purchased, on the advice of Mary Woodall, for the Felton Bequest, 1974.