Woman Searching for Fleas

In 1708 Crespi left Bologna for Florence and found a patron in Ferdinando de' Medici, the heir to Tuscany and a restless collector. A picture like this is what he collected from him. A young woman sits half undressed at the end of the day, her stays and skirt hoops heaped around her, bending toward a lamp to hunt for fleas, a bowl of water set out to drown them. The subject caught on, and Crespi came back to it again and again. Something like seven versions survive, several of them passing through the wardrobe of the Tuscan grand dukes. It is a strange thing for a prince to want, the least dignified chore in the house, painted as carefully as any altarpiece. Look up, and two boys are leaning in from above to watch, which tips the whole quiet scene toward something coarser.