1558
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
The Three Fates is a 1558 ink by Giorgio Ghisi, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This engraving shows three women sitting together. The woman on the left holds a pair of scissors, the middle one spins thread with a spindle, and the woman on the right winds yarn onto a spool. All three look focused, with flowing robes and serious expressions. The scene feels quiet but intense, like they’re deeply involved in their work. The tools they hold—scissors, spindle, and spool—are classic symbols for life’s stages: cutting the thread of life, spinning it, and winding it up. This kind of image was common in Renaissance art to teach moral lessons. If you like this, look up engraving to see how artists carved these detailed lines into metal.
Giorgio Ghisi (1520 — 15 December 1582) was an Italian engraver from Mantua who also worked in Antwerp and in France.
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