Head of Bearded Man (recto); Head of a Girl (verso)

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As the late-seventeenth-century inscription "Fran.co Parmigiano" on the mount indicates, this study traditionally was believed to be by Francesco Mazzola, known as Parmigianino. It should be assigned instead to Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli and related to his painting of an unknown male sitter (private collection). Bedoli, who was Parmigianino's cousin and artistic successor, widely emulated his graphic style, so it is not surprising that there has been some confusion in the attribution of their respective drawings. Confidently executed in a mix of red and black chalk, this animated sketch differs from the painting in ways that suggest the study was made from life in preparation for the portrait. On the reverse of the sheet, the artist drew a more finished study of a female head, also in red and black chalk.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art