8 - Study of a Young Man’s Head (Front); Study of a Young Girl’s Head (Back) Red chalk on paper, 268 x 186 mm

Study of a Young Man’s Head (Front); Study of a Young Girl’s Head (Back) Red chalk on paper, 268 x 186 mm An interesting sheet drawn on both sides, featuring two stylistically distinct head studies. On the recto, the face of a young boy, lightly sketched in red chalk with quick, light strokes, reveals a sensibility reminiscent of the 17th-century Bolognese graphic tradition. The concise construction of the facial features, achieved with just a few essential strokes, echoes the practice of drawing from life characteristic of the 17th-century Emilian art scene. This study finds an interesting point of comparison in the graphic work of the Carracci family, particularly in certain studies dedicated to the depiction of a head tilted sharply backward and viewed in foreshortening. Particularly significant is the comparison with Annibale Carracci, *Head of a Woman, Facing Forward and Turning to the Right*, approximately 1601, Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 12013, where a similar backward rotation of the head, the marked foreshortening of the face, and the role of the ear as a reference point in the anatomical construction recur.However, Annibale had already explored this motif in his youth, as evidenced by the reclining male nude with his head tilted backward, housed at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and dating from around 1584. These comparisons place our drawing within the context of a graphic approach particularly dear to the Carracci family, centered on life drawing and extreme foreshortening of the human figure. The reverse side, on the other hand, features a more accomplished study of a young woman’s head, also executed in red chalk but with a noticeably different style. The face, rendered with a sharp outline and broad shading, reveals a more idealized style and a sensibility that is now fully 18th-century in character. Particular attention is paid to the definition of the gaze, the oval of the face, and the hairstyle, while the modulation of the red chalk lends the figure a delicate chiaroscuro effect. On the front, there are numerical inscriptions in pen.