Staande vrouw, naar rechts, met een doek over het hoofd 1643 - 1720

Curator: Oh, there’s something so inherently fragile and poignant about sketches, don’t you think? Especially this one: “Standing Woman, Facing Right, with a Cloth over Her Head.” It's tentatively attributed to Giovanni Segala, sometime between 1643 and 1720. Editor: It's that sepia tone and the coarse paper. She feels unfinished, exposed... vulnerable, really. I keep focusing on the hand. Curator: Absolutely. The visible pencil strokes! It feels like peeking into the artist's process. I’m caught by the tension between the flowing fabric and those tightly clasped hands, her almost imploring gaze... Editor: But who was making the pencils, the paper at the time? What was the cost of that pigment? It wouldn't have been accessible to most people. This kind of skill took serious resources and time to cultivate. Curator: That’s a fair point, and it adds another layer to consider. Still, something in her eyes suggests she carries the weight of her world… as everyone does, whatever the period, right? Editor: Perhaps, or is that narrative projection onto materials that already dictated limitations? Red chalk allowed speed and relative affordability in creating form for further development; it wasn't about slowing down, but quickly capturing a figure. We see an intention of speed by an academic background in the marks of line work. Curator: Well, now I imagine her as an artist's model caught between poses. Editor: Think more assembly line, less muse. Curator: Even the wispiest sketches carry echoes, though. To consider the humanity of it, that someone handled these materials long ago to craft this, touches a string inside, don’t you think? Editor: I will acknowledge it makes one consider the many hands needed to have gotten here.