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This engraving shows a woman facing left, her head and neck wrapped in a series of intricately draped cloths. The artist employs a technique of swelling and tapering lines to give the figure a sculptural, three-dimensional presence against a background of horizontal hatching. The work is a 'tronie,' a character study intended to demonstrate the artist's skill in capturing varied human types and exotic textures.

As a leading figure of Haarlem Mannerism, Goltzius’s technical virtuosity was linked to the intellectual culture of his time, which saw the artist as an imitator of nature's underlying principles. The use of antique-style head coverings in his studies often signaled a connection to the ancient wisdom associated with figures such as the Sibyls, common in the mystical and philosophical circles of late 16th-century Haarlem.