Study for the Head of Saint Joseph (recto); Two Studies of Legs (verso)

about 1526–1527

Medium

Red and black chalks (recto); red chalk (verso)

Dimensions

37.5 × 22.6 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-211524

This large and impressive sheet was made by Andrea as a study for the sleeping Saint Joseph in the private devotional painting, the Bracci Holy Family, now in the Galleria Palatina, Florence and commonly known after the name of its patron, Zanobi di Giovambattista Bracci (1488–after 1531). In this deeply naturalistic study drawing, which is rendered on a similar scale to the figure in the painting, Andrea characteristically disregarded the lower part of the face, as it would be obscured when Joseph rested on his left arm. Andrea focused instead on the fall of light on the face and—most spectacularly—on the shadows cast within the vivid gray hair, rendered so realistically in the painting as a result of this drawing. Much of the black-chalk work is tied into effects of stumping, with the stump (a rolled piece of leather sharpened to a point) used to create patches of shadow that are then reworked with further strokes of chalk. Blank reserves of paper are skillfully left as highlights and firmer black-chalk lines create accented shadows. A brief subsidiary study lower on the page explores the possibility of raising Joseph’s head slightly and showing him awake. A further small-scale …