Testa di donna inclinata (c.1543)

Bronzino (1503-1572)

Testa di donna inclinata, sorridente, occhi bassi (Woman’s head tilted, smiling, eyes downcast)
c.1543
Black chalk on paper, 28.8 × 21.6 cm
Musée du LouvreParis

Study for the young woman appearing on the far left of the composition ‘Moses striking the rock’, fresco part of the Chapel of Eleonora of Toledo, at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (c. 15401550). J. Cox Rearick (‘Bronzino’s drawings for the Chapel of Eleonora at the Palazzo Vecchio’, in Revue de l’Art, 14, 1971, p. 20-21) and C. H. Smyth (Bronzino as draughtsman: an introduction, New York, 1971, p. 58) recognize the drawing as preparatory cardboard for the fresco. See also cat. of exp. ‘The drawings of Bronzino’, New York, Metropolitan Museum, 2010, no. 29. On the Baldinucci collection see, Federica Mancini, “the red chalk drawings coming from Filippo Baldinucci’s collection at the Louvre Museum”, in Disegni a pietra rossa, Avare Disegno, 3, edited by Luca Fiorentino and Michael W. Kwakkelstein, Florence, 2021, pp. 211-221. (Louvre)