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Head of a Bearded Man

1588/89–1623
Not on view
Consecutively active in Rome, Mantua, and Venice, Domenico Fetti is best known for his history paintings, but this drawing clearly exemplyfies his virtuosity as a fine portraitist. The intensity of the gaze of this astutely observed sitter recalls Fetti's celebrated painting, the Portrait of an Actor, in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. The highly controlled pastel technique Fetti is displaying here might have come from his master Lodovico Cigoli or might have been inspired by earlier examples by Federico Barocci and Jacopo Bassano. The attribution to Domenico Fetti goes back to the time of the French collector Pierre-Jean Mariette, whose attribution is elegantly inscribed on his signature-blue mount.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Head of a Bearded Man
  • Artist: Domenico Fetti (Italian, Rome (?) 1591/92–1623 Venice)
  • Date: 1588/89–1623
  • Medium: Black chalk, red, yellow, and pink pastel, highlighted with white on gray-green paper
  • Dimensions: 13-/4 x 9-11/16 in. (34.9 x 24.6 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Harry G. Sperling Fund, 1981
  • Object Number: 1981.394
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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The Good Samaritan, Domenico Fetti Italian, Oil on wood
The Good Samaritan
Domenico Fetti
ca. 1618–22
The Parable of the Mote and the Beam, Domenico Fetti Italian, Oil on wood
The Parable of the Mote and the Beam
Domenico Fetti
ca. 1619
Salvator Mundi, Domenico Fetti Italian, Oil on wood
Salvator Mundi
Domenico Fetti
ca. 1622–23
Lucretia, Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi) Italian, Pen and brown ink over black chalk, partially incised with a stylus (recto); rubbed with black chalk for transfer (verso)
Lucretia
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi)
1508–10
Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso), Michelangelo Buonarroti Italian, Red chalk, with small accents of white chalk on the left shoulder of the figure in the main study (recto); soft black chalk, or less probably charcoal (verso)
Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
Michelangelo Buonarroti
ca. 1510–11

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