Drawing in Silver and Gold German and Swiss Renaissance

Shown from the chest up, a woman’s body faces us as she looks slightly off to our left in this vertical drawing. Her face and features are shaded in detail with white highlights that suggest pale skin. She has round eyes with heavy lids under lightly raised brows, a straight nose, and full lips in an oval-shaped face. Her headdress wraps around her neck and head and falls over her shoulders. She is enclosed by a drawn frame with rounded corners at the top and a curved bottom. The artist’s initials are partially visible within the frame near the lower right, “H.H.” Ink writing was added to a few areas of the drawing or has transferred from another page to this image.

Hans Holbein the Elder (German, c. 1465 - 1524), Portrait of a Woman, c. 1508, silverpoint with brush and ink, over charoal and leadpoint, heightened with white on prepared paper, 5 11/16 × 4 1/16 (14.4 × 10.3), National Gallery of Art, Woodner Collection, 1991.182.18.a.

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Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), Head of a Boy, Inclined to Left, c. 1505/1507, silverpoint with touches of pen and ink, heightened with white on prepared paper, 10 11/16 × 8 7/16 (27.2 × 21.4), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, Sloane 5218-41.

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Circle of the Wierix Brothers, Two Studies of a Standing Nude Woman in Profile to the Left, Holding a Mirror, c. 1580, silverpoint over blind stylus, strengthened with pen and ink, on prepared paper, On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.979.

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Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), A Dog Resting (recto); Studies of Two Women (verso), 1520, silverpoint over traces of carbon black on pale pink prepared paper (recto); silverpoint on pale pink prepared paper (verso), 5 1/16 × 7 1/16 (12.8 × 18), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1848,1125.3.

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Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), A Table and Jugs with a Sketch of a Horse in Trappings (recto); A Chest and Firedog (verso), 1520/1521, silverpoint on pale pink prepared paper, 4 1/2 × 6 9/16 (11.5 × 16.7), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1921,0714.2.

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Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), Head of a Woman, c. 1505/1507, silverpoint with brush and gray wash (or traces of black chalk?), heightened with white over blind stylus underdrawing on pink prepared paper, 8 9/16 × 7 1/8 (21.8 × 18.1), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.978.

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Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), The Cathedral at Aachen, 1520, silverpoint on pale pink prepared paper, 4 15/16 × 6 7/8 (12.6 × 17.4), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.982.

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Hans Holbein the Elder (German, c. 1465 - 1524), Head of a Laughing Man Turned to the Left (recto); Study for a Statuette of Saint Sebastian (verso), c. 1497/1500, silverpoint on white prepared paper, 5 3/16 × 3 3/4 (13.1 × 9.6), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1885,0509.1612.

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Hans Holbein the Elder (German, c. 1465 - 1524), Portrait of the Artist’s Brother, Sigmund Holbein, 1512, silverpoint with black and red chalk, heightened with white on white prepared paper, 5 1/16 × 3 3/4 (12.9 × 9.6), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.987.

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Workshop of Hans Holbein the Elder, attributed to Hans Burgkmair the Elder, Portrait of the Wife of Jörg Fischer, c. 1512/1515, silverpoint with touches of copperpoint on white prepared paper, 5 3/8 × 4 (13.6 × 10.2), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1854,0628.113.

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