Head of a Bearded, Young Man in Profile Facing Right

Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This delicately drawn study portrays the bearded head of a youthful man of Apollonian beauty that might have been used to represent the figure of Christ. The modeling of the shadows is seamlessly blended, with a masterful use of the technique of stumping, or rubbing in, of the individual strokes of soft black chalk. Applied to brilliant effect by Michelangelo in the 1530s and 1540s, this drawing technique with black chalk was greatly emulated by Florentine Mannerist artists of the following decade, and foremost by Agnolo Bronzino. The head seen here recalls those in the Medici tapestries on the story of Joseph, which were designed by Bronzino between 1549-50 and 1553. This sheet was acquired with an attribution to 16th century Florentine artist, and George Goldner reattributed it to Bronzino soon after the acquisition.

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