Attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli

Bears unidentified collector's mark and numbering, not in Lugt, verso

This attractive study of a young woman, executed in red, black and white chalk, is depicted with a compass in her right hand, suggesting she represents an allegorical figure.  The inscription on the verso attributes the drawing to Ginevra Cantofoli, a female Bolognese artist active in 17^th Century, who was an assistant and follower of Elisabetta Sirani.  There are, though, very few known drawings by Cantofoli with which this can be compared.  Dr. Babette Bohn, who has seen a photograph of the drawing, notes its similarity to a painting that is attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli in the Brera Museum, Milan.  There is certainly a resemblance between our attractive young woman and the one on the left of the painting in Milan, which has sometimes been considered a self–portrait of the artist, raising the possibility that the present sheet could also be a self-portrait of Ginevra Cantofoli in allegorical guise.