Head of a Young Woman Looking to Lower Right

Head of a Young Woman Looking to Lower Right

Federico Barocci

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This exquisite, though fragile and abraded drawing in color served as a study for the head of the Virgin in the Madonna di San Giovanni, a votive altarpiece probably painted for the Church of the Capuchin Fathers at Crocicchia around 1565, and then transferred to the Convent of the Capuchins in Urbino (Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino; reproduced and discussed with related drawings in Emiliani 1975, I, pp.29-31). The facial features of the Virgin in the Museum's drawing are nearly identical to those in the altarpiece, but her head is not yet covered with a veil. The related study for the head of the Virgin in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 2864) shows the suggestion of a veil on her cranium, and hence may have followed in the sequence of preliminary design for the altarpiece. (Carmen C. Bambach)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Head of a Young Woman Looking to Lower RightHead of a Young Woman Looking to Lower RightHead of a Young Woman Looking to Lower RightHead of a Young Woman Looking to Lower RightHead of a Young Woman Looking to Lower Right

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.