Head of a Youth

Author: Maud Guichané

This drawing continues to raise many questions about its author. It was first mentioned in the sale of the collection of the German portraitist Auguste Grahl (1791-1868) in 1885, where it was attributed to Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). This corresponds to the inscription on the back of the mount, which probably dates from the same period. However, the manner of this sheet is quite different from the known drawings of the Florentine master, whose faces are also more pointed. Franz Koenigs acquired the work as a drawing from the School of Mantegna (c.1431-1506).^[1] In 1962, Philip Pouncey cautiously put forward the name of Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1502).^[2] It is true that this study of a young man seems to be close to the typology of the young angels that appear in his paintings, particularly the one on the far right in his painting The Nativity now in Siena (fig.).^[3] The round, youthful face, the small, fleshy, fixed mouth, and the curly hair and collar also bear some resemblance to the figures painted by Benvenuto di Giovanni (1436-after 1509/1517).^[4] These similarities could suggest that our sheet was produced in Siena in the second half of the fifteenth century. But none of these attributions seems entirely satisfactory.^[5] If the drawing shows some kinship with each of these schools, its rather stiff character could also suggest a copy.^[6]