Three Studies of a Woman Wearing an Elaborate Headdress

c. 1500

Three Studies of a Woman Wearing an Elaborate Headdress, c. 1500. Anonymous, retouched by Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640). Pen and brown ink; retouched with brush and brown wash, lead white (partially oxidized); sheet: 12.9 x 12.8 cm (5 1/16 x 5 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1987.31 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 drawing for his own model book and even drew over it. In the 1600s, the artist Peter Paul Rubens made additions in ink wash and white paint to this c. 1500 drawing by an unknown Netherlandish artist.