Study of a Young Woman

Circle of: Federico Zuccaro (in circa 1595-1609)

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James Mundy asked

Upon further looking, perhaps this is simply the backing paper showing through?
Also, please note that Federico's daughter died in 1595 at the age of three years old.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen answered

Dear James, I have consulted our curator of drawings , Rosie Razzal, and she says that the identification of the sitter as Laura is discussed by Surya Stermerding in her catalogue entry, currently only in Dutch but soon to be translated to English:
https://www.boijmans.nl/collectie/kunstwerken/72501/studie-van-zijn-dochter-laura

The identification is based on a drawing in the Louvre showing two of his daughters, and a fresco in the family palazzo that shows all three of them as young women. The fresco is discussed in:
Winner/Heikamp 1993
M. Winner, D. Heikamp, Der Maler Federico Zuccari. Ein römischer Virtuoso von europäischem Ruhm. Akten des internationalen Kongresses der Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rom und Florenz, Munich 1993
I hope this information is useful. Kind regards, Els
James Mundy asked

There seems to be a collector's mark in blue ink in the lower right. Can you tell me whose it is, please?
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen answered

Dear James, thank you for your question and patience. The blue mark is indeed not a collector's mark but an area of abrasion, perhaps an old loss that has been filled in and colored in. I will answer your other question in a separate email. Kind regards, Els.

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Specifications

Title	Study of a Young Woman
Material and technique	Black chalk, heightened with white, on blue paper
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 163 mm Width 117 mm
Artists	Circle of: Federico Zuccaro
Accession number	MB 982 (PK)
Credits	Gift J.H.J. Mellaart, 1922
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1922
Creation date	in circa 1595-1609
Inscriptions	‘fiderico Zuccaro’ (above centre, pen and brown ink), 'Salvator Rosa' (verso, below centre, pen and brown ink)
Provenance	Anton Maria Zanetti (1679-1767), artist, Venice; -; J.H.J. Mellaart (1895-1972) art dealer, The Hague; aankoop 1922
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Material	Black chalk > Chalk > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Blue paper > Coloured paper > Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Technique	Highlight > Painting technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Surya Stemerding

According to the annotations on the recto and verso, this drawing was attributed in previous decades successively to Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) and Federico Zuccaro.^[1]The taut diagonal hatchings and loose contours match the style that Federico employed in his drawn portraits, and suggest that the artist was from his immediate sphere of influence in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth-century.

A drawing in Paris shows two of Federico’s three daughters.^[2]Graf recognized two of them as Cynthia and Laura from their physiognomic resemblance to one of the painted portraits in the family palazzo in Rome. An inscription beneath that fresco names the daughters as Isabella, Cynthia and Laura.^[3]A comparison between the girl on the right in the Louvre drawing and the daughter in Rotterdam previously led to the assumption that she was the youngest daughter, Laura. That hypothesis had to be abandoned when new information demonstrated that Laura died at the age of three in 1595.^[4]

Footnotes

^[1]The annotation ‘Salvator Rosa’ is on the verso and must therefore date from before it was written on the Zanettimount in the eighteenth century.

^[2] Musée du Louvre, inv. 4594.

^[3]See Graf in Winner/Heikamp 1993, pp. 77-78, figs. 55-57, and Acidini Luchinat 1998-99, pp. 214-15, figs. 76-80.

^[4]With thanks to James Mundy for his expertise and attentiveness in regard to this detail. See also P. Galanti in Cleri 1997, p. 80, notes 39 and 40.

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600

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