BACCIO BANDINELLI (Florence 1488-1560)

This large drawing is an early example of the Florentine sculptor's graphic production, likely made at the time when – as narrated by his biographer Giorgio Vasari – the young apprentice went to the countryside to draw animals and labourers in order to improve his drawing skills. A comparably early example, executed in the same technique, is the study of a male model at Windsor (inv. RCIN 990454; see A.E. Popham and J. Wilde, The Italian Drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London, 1949, no. 72, fig. 23).
We are grateful to Roger Ward for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph and for his assistance in cataloguing the drawing.