Italian school (XVII) - Testa virile

Apostle's head
Technique: black stone with shades and highlights of chiaroscuro on paper.
Dimensions: 26 × 20 cm (inside the frame)
Period: the first half of the 17th century (ca. 1620–1650)
Roman-Emilian school post-Carraccesca

Condition: good; paper slightly oxidized at the edges, physiological traces of time.


The sheet depicts the head of a mature man, rendered with strong expressive characterization: a full beard, thick hair, a focused gaze, and a slightly tilted face.

The construction is solid and plastic, achieved through a careful use of black stone and deep shades, with continuous surface modeling that gives the face a sculptural presence.

The quality of the hand is high: the soft hatching, the volumetric management of the face and the folds of the cloak, the calibrated luministic rendering, and the confidence of the line reveal an artist fully trained within the Emiliano-Romagnolo environment of the first half of the Seventeenth century.

This type of study was often conducted as preparatory work for figures of apostles, prophets, or secondary characters intended for altarpieces and large-scale decorative cycles.

The graphic language shows strong affinities with the Carracci tradition and with artists active in the orbit of Domenichino, Lanfranco, Guido Reni the Younger, and Badalocchio. The expressive power and the chiaroscuro construction recall the head studies produced in Roman workshops between 1620 and 1650.

High-quality drawing, representative of the best graphic production of the Emilian-Roman school at the height of early Baroque. The work possesses historical and collector's value, and it coherently fits within the preparatory sheets of the great Roman decorators of the early seventeenth century.