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Source Description
This mysterious drawing shows an encounter between elegantly dressed members of the noble class. The French inscription above the image suggests that the woman is addressing her suitors and makes it clear that they are concerned with the pursuit of love: He who will conquer my love / This [barrier] must overcome / Neither destroying it nor loosening it / Going neither below it nor above. The style of the clothing reflects French court fashions during the reign of Charles VIII (1483–98), and the subject relates to the tradition of late medieval collections of love riddles that involved verbal exchanges between courtly ladies and gentlemen.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
133799
label
A Lady with Three Suitors
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
133799
contentType
drawing
title
A Lady with Three Suitors
description
This mysterious drawing shows an encounter between elegantly dressed members of the noble class. The French inscription above the image suggests that the woman is addressing her suitors and makes it clear that they are concerned with the pursuit of love: He who will conquer my love / This [barrier] must overcome / Neither destroying it nor loosening it / Going neither below it nor above. The style of the clothing reflects French court fashions during the reign of Charles VIII (1483–98), and the subject relates to the tradition of late medieval collections of love riddles that involved verbal exchanges between courtly ladies and gentlemen.
date
c. 1500
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q80026280
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 23 x 19.3 cm (9 1/16 x 7 5/8 in.)
cul
France, 16th century
accession
1956.4
Source extras
tec
pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, with traces of black chalk
tombstone
A Lady with Three Suitors, c. 1500. France, 16th century. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, with traces of black chalk; sheet: 23 x 19.3 cm (9 1/16 x 7 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1956.40
supportMaterials
description
cream(3) laid paper
watermarks
Wheel, similar to Briquet, 1923, no. 13389
collection
DR - French
inscriptions
inscription
upper center, in brown ink: Celuy mamour conquestera / qui deca ce laß passera / Sanß lempirer ne desnouer / sanß dessuß ne dessoubz passez
didYouKnow
The simple background and lack of landscape detail in this drawing suggest that the image may have been a model for a tapestry or other textile.
citations
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 578
citation
"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April - June 1958." <em>The Art Quarterly</em> 21, no. 3 (Autumn 1958).
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 336
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 75
citation
Wixom, William D. <em>Treasures from Medieval France</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 314, no. VII 11; Reproduced: p. 315
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 75
citation
Huizinga, Johan. <em>The Waning Middle Ages</em>. Exh. Cat. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 43-44, no. 38; Reproduced: plate LXVIII
citation
Levin, William R. <em>Images of Love and Death in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art</em>. Exh. Cat. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1975.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 97, no. 58; Reproduced: plate IX
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 84
citation
Byam Shaw, James. <em>The Italian Drawings of the Frits Lugt Collection</em>. Paris: Fondation Custodia, 1983.
page_number
Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 214 n. 1
citation
Muylle, Jan. "<em>Big Fishes Eat Little Fishes</em> by Pieter Bruegel after Hieronymus Bosch (?): A Question of Interpretation." In <em>Le dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture</em>. Edited by Roger van Schoute and Dominique Hollanders-Favart. Louvain: Université catholique de Louvain, 1985.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 131; Reproduced: plate 48
citation
Tortora, Phyllis G. and Keith Eubank. <em>Survey of Historic Costume: A History of Western Dress. </em>2nd edition. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1994.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 156
citation
Backhouse, Janet and Yves Giraud. <em>Pierre Sala: Petit livre d'amour</em>. Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1994.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 138-139
citation
"Drawings on Exhibition." <em>Drawing</em> 16, no. 6 (March - April 1995): 131-133.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 131
citation
Dunbar, Burton L. and Edward J. Olszewski, eds. <em>Drawings in Midwestern Collections: Volume I, Early Works</em>. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1996.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 117-119, no. 22
citation
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 90-91, p. 287, no. 32; Reproduced: p. 91
citation
Karet, Evelyn and Peter Windows. "The <em>Antonio II Badile Album </em>of Drawings: A Reconstruction of an Early Sixteenth Century Collection." <em>Arte Lombarda</em> 145, no. 3 (2005): 23-56.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 26, pp. 37-38, no. 12v [47]; Reproduced: p. 37, no. 29
citation
Karet, Evelyn. <em>The Antonio II Badile Album of Drawings: The Origins of Collecting Drawings in Early Modern Northern Italy.</em> Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 95; mentioned: p. 96, fig. 3.31
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:51:55.376000
sourceId
133799
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - French
med
pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, with traces of black chalk
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
031cc23a37f8ad9a