DÜRER, Albrecht
(b. 1471, Nürnberg, d. 1528, Nürnberg)

Laughing Peasant Woman

1505
Pen, 390 x 270 mm
British Museum, London

The legend reads: "una Villana vindisch" (a peasant woman in the Veneto). This shows the delicate short strokes of the time of The Life of the Virgin, still without more rigorous economy: a flow of little dashes, crossed here and there by patches of straight lines that extend beyond the outlines of the forms; a chiaroscuro effect. The transitory moment of the drawing back of the lips and the blinking of the eyes is captured and retained.