Giuseppe Bossi (1777-1815), Attributed to - Studio di una scultura

Giuseppe Bossi Firmatk (attributed)

Youthful head, academic study

Graphite (and/or black chalk) on paper, cm 20 × 15 within a gift frame (with seals on the back)
Dating: ca. 1795–1808

Study of a male head set according to a rigorous plastic conception, in which the face is built up by masses and by light, with the eyes intentionally left in reserve according to an academic practice typical of the Neoclassical milieu. The line is controlled, continuous, free of pronounced contours, and yields a strong sculptural solidity, an index of cultivated and self-conscious formation. The work coherently fits into the climate of late 18th‑century Milan, dominated by the cult of the antique and the study of classical statuary promoted by the Brera Academy.

Giuseppe Bossi (1777–1815) was one of the central figures of Lombard Neoclassicism: painter, draftsman, theorist and secretary of the Brera Academy, he was a protagonist in the diffusion in Italy of a severe and measured language, founded on the classical ideal and the discipline of drawing.

In his graphic studies, often intended for internal or didactic use, Bossi favored volumetric construction and the plastic rendering over psychological definition, characteristics fully observable in this sheet, which by quality, technique and approach can be attributed with good coherence to his hand.

Signed in the lower right corner (Bossi).