Attributed to the workshop of Bartolomeo Passarotti, 
Italian 1529-1592- 
Five male heads; 
pen...

Attributed to the workshop of Bartolomeo Passarotti, 
Italian 1529-1592- 

Five male heads; 

pen and dark brown ink, possibly iron gall ink, on laid paper, indistinctly inscribed '5...', (crossed out, centre left), and with an indistinct chalk sketch of the Madonna and Child enthroned verso, 19.9 x 25.2 cm. 

Provenance: 
Private Collection, UK. 

Note: 
While perhaps best known for his large oils of butchers' stalls populated with grinning grotesques and rustic figures, Bolognese painter Bartolomeo Passarotti was also a prolific draughtsman, and a keen and astute observer of the human form. The present sheet of head studies, rendered with confident hatchwork and firm, decisive contours, imbuing the profiles with an almost sculptural heft, shows the influence of drawings by an earlier generation of artists. It is particularly reminiscent of ink drawings by the Florentine sculptor and draughtsman Baccio Bandinelli (1493-1560), in whose workshop Passarotti is known to have studied. The drawing presented here shows distinct similarities to other known head studies given to Passarotti or to his extensive Bolognese workshop, such as the sketch of two children's heads held in the collection of the Louvre, Paris (INV 8488), the studies of male heads held at the Galleria Estense (no. 1212), the drawing of a female head in profile which appeared at auction at auction in Berlin in 2021 (Bassenge, 03 December 2021, lot 6633, EUR 8,000) and the example which was sold in Brussels that same year (Vanderkindere, 19 January 2021, lot 220, EUR 1,900). The dramatically foreshortened face to the lower central portion of the present drawing exemplifies the artist's interest in forensically exploring the human form from every angle. This approach is clearly visible in Passarotti's many studies of anatomy and sculpture including the sheet showing a male torso at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (2000.124.1.b), or the study of hands now in the Jan Krugier Collection, Monaco (JK 4667).