Study of the Head of Giuliano de Medici, after Michelangelo

This study is taken from the figure of Giuliano de' Medici on his tomb in the Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo, Florence. The tomb was sculpted by Michelangelo Buonarotti from 1516.

Tintoretto made several copies after the cast of both the whole figure and the head alone. The cast of Giuliano would have been used as a studio prop to help Tintoretto and others in his workshop learn to draw from a single figure and with sharply foreshortened and twisted angles. The quality of the paper and stains upon it indicate this was a working drawing, rather than a finished piece itself. The paper this is drawn on has bits of old string and gritty chalk granules clearly visible to the naked eye.