Group of Three Women

Author: Klazina Botke

Two young women and an older woman are pictured half-length against an ochre background. The drawing is executed in metalpoint on parchment, possibly with a preparation of ground bone mixed with glue and an ochre pigment. The details and shadows of the two young women have been worked up further with pen and brush, and the light falling on their robes and faces is captured with white heightening. Delicate curls frame the face of the woman in the centre. She wears a striking necklace with a small cross pattée, a Christian symbol that was very popular in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, and holds a scarf or a fold of her robe. It is not entirely clear which scene is depicted here or what was the function of this sheet. It might be a study for the three Marys at Christ’s empty tomb, who do occur occasionally in a separate scene in late fourteenth-century fresco cycles of the life of Christ. However, this does not explain the difference in the ages of the women.

The sheet was acquired as an Italian drawing made around 1400. Later, on Bernard Berenson’s advice, the attribution was changed to Stefano da Zevio, by which was meant Giovanni da Verona (c.1374/1375-after 1438).^[1] Da Verona, whose work is typical of a style sometimes referred to as ‘international gothic’ by twentieth-century art historians, was trained in Lombardy by his father, the French-born artist Jean d'Arbois. The softly modelled figures, the use of curved lines and the fine gold accents that articulate the details in the drapery are typical of Stefano’s style. The small group of drawings, now attributed to him, all feature long, elegant figures, rendered in an expressive manner.^[2] He used flowing outlines and a combination of parallel hatching and crosshatching for the shaded areas, as is evident in an early sheet in New York.^[3] We see some of the characteristics of his work in the Rotterdam study. The figures are elongated, with elegant hands and fingers, but the strong, expressive hatching is absent. The anomalous technique and the use of parchment mean that the study does not slot easily into the existing group of pen-and-ink drawings. The work can therefore not be securely attributed to Stefano da Verona, but certainly seems to have been made in his circle.