Spinning Old Woman Giacomo Ceruti (circle of)

The young girl in the painting, dressed in simple peasant clothes, is resting her head in the palm of her hand with a gentle melancholy mixed with fatigue. Her rustic beauty is naturally matched by the dark, monochrome back­ground often used in the paintings of Giacomo Ceruti, a Lombard painter who specialised in genre paintings, portraits and character heads. The red distaff, which is not only a well-known attribute of one of the Three Fates, Clotho, but was also a traditional symbol of women’s housework, is prominently featured in the composition. Although the painting was made during the artist’s Venetian period, the harshness of the composition and Ceruti’s depiction of the irregularities of the girl’s face without any intention of idealisation reflect the master’s adherence to the traditions of Lombard realism.