Study after the head of Michelangelo’s ‘Guiliano de’Medici’, ca. 1545 – 1560

About the Work

This drawing and another, very similar one (Obj. No. 464 Z) show the head of Giuliano de’ Medici from Michelangelo’s wall tomb in San Lorenzo in Florence. Depicted from different perspectives, they can presumably be traced to a plaster cast which Jacopo will have kept in his workshop to be copied for purposes of study. While the this drawing (Obj. No. 15701 Z) is attributed to the master himself, Obj. No. 464 Z is considered the work of a pupil. Both indicate an interest in using the means of draughtsmanship to reproduce the three-dimensional effect created by the distribution of light.