ATTRIBUTED TO FRANS FLORIS THE ELDER | Head of a female figure

This painting bears much similarity with the Head of a woman, recorded in a private collection in Schipluiden,(1) which itself relates to the head of Mary in a now lost painting of the Holy Family at a table, with Elizabeth and John, known today only through a print.(2) Carl Van de Velde dates that painting, and consequently the Schipluiden head, to circa 1556–58.

1 C. Van de Velde, Frans Floris (1519/20–1570). Leven en Werken, Brussels 1975, vol. I, p. 248, cat. no. 103, reproduced fig. 46.

2 Van de Velde 1975, vol. I, p. 399, cat. no. 24, reproduced fig. 173.