GHIRLANDAIO, Domenico
(b. 1449, Firenze, d. 1494, Firenze)

Bust-Length Woman Wearing a Coif

1489-90
Black chalk on cream-coloured paper, 366 x 221 mm
Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth

This drawing was made by Domenico Ghirlandaio for the most important commission of his career: the decoration of the huge chancel of the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The decoration was commissioned by Giovanni Tornabuoni (1428-1497) in 1485.

The present drawing is a preparatory for the mural of the Birth of Mary, which shows Tornabuoni's thirteen- or fourteen-year-old daughter Ludovica Tornabuoni with her entourage. The verso depicts a full-length woman standing and a faint sketch of a face.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.