Bust of a young woman with elaborate headdress, looking down.

Art Historical Context

This delicate etching, created in 1645 by Wenceslaus Hollar after a design by Ludovico Mazzolino, captures the bust of a young woman gazing downward beneath an ornate headdress. Measuring just 2½ by 1⅞ inches, the print exemplifies the intimate scale often favored in 17th-century reproductive etchings. Hollar, a Bohemian artist renowned for his precise and detailed printmaking, rendered the subject with fine lines that convey both the texture of the headdress and the gentle tilt of the figure’s head. As a work classified among the Metropolitan Museum’s prints and drawings, this piece reflects the period’s growing interest in portraiture as a means of exploring individual character and status. The “only state” notation indicates that Hollar produced no subsequent variations, preserving the image exactly as first conceived. Its acquisition through the Joseph Pulitzer Bequest in 1917 underscores the enduring appeal of such small-scale works for collectors and scholars alike. Visitors may appreciate how the downward gaze and elaborate adornments invite quiet contemplation, offering a window into 17th-century ideals of feminine beauty and the technical mastery of etching as an art form.

About the Artist

Ludovico Mazzolino|Wenceslaus Hollar · 1480–1528

Ludovico Mazzolino (c. 1480–c. 1528), also known as Mazzolini da Ferrara or Il Ferrarese, was an Italian Renaissance painter whose highly personal and sophisticated style made him a favorite at the court of Ferrara. Born around 1480 in Ferrara, Mazzolino spent almost his entire life in this culturally rich city, where he developed a distinctive approach that looked back to the calligraphic precisi...