Author: Suyderhoef, Jonas (ca. 1613-1686) after Ostade, Adriaen van (1610-1685)
Title: The three crones or the Dutch fates.
Description: Three old ladies in an interior, believed to be three witches. On bottom right: 'Nicolaus Visscher excu'. Signed within the oval, on the top right: 'A Ostade pinx / J. Suyderhoef excudit'. In pen and brown ink at the bottom in French: 'Les trois fileuses'. In fact, looking at the tools included in the representation, these three ladies look like the three mythological Parcae, the personification of Destiny in Greek and Roman Mythology. They were named Nona, Decima and Morte. Nona spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle, Decima measured the thread of life with her rod, Death cut the thread determining the death of the person's thread. Engraving on paper, trimmed to plate mark; total: 292 x 224 mm, state IV/6, although Danckerts' signature has been removed. Therefore this might be an undocumented state in between; some smudges, scribblings in pencil and pen and ink on verso. Hollstein 21, Wuss 120; D.120; Wurzbach 120.

Keywords: Fairytales & (folk)stories|Night scene