Head of a Young Man

This head study of a young man from around 1500 belongs to the type of preparatory study that Florentine painters created as workshop references. Andrea del Sarto was trained in the Florentine tradition that prized disegno—drawing and design—as the foundation of painting Oil on canvas, increasingly preferred over panel in the sixteenth century, offered greater flexibility for large-scale compositions The work is now in the collection of Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.

The study reveals Andrea's confident draftsmanship and his ability to capture individual character through quick, assured modeling of facial features and expression.