Description: Numbered in pen and brown ink at lower right: 88. (Sparre). Inscribed in pen and brown ink at lower right: Baccio Bandinelli

Bandinelli and his followers frequently drew suggestive groupings of heads such as that in the present study. Sometimes they are interpreted as illustrations of the three ages of Man, or as portraits of Bandinelli himself. This one is, as Roger Ward observed, without question by the hand of the master. The two larger heads in the top row bear a similarity to Bandinelli's main patron, Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. They are also close to the features of Hercules in Bandinelli's statue of "Hercules and Cacus" that Cosimo commissioned as a pendent to Michelangelo's David. Begun in 1525, the statue was erected outside the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio only in 1534. The Hercules, which does bear a strong resemblance to Cosimo I, certainly was intended to carry allusions to Cosimo's political power. The profile head in the lower left of the sheet may be a portrait of Bandinelli himself as it corresponds to profile labeled as such in the Duke of Devonshire collection (inv. 23). A similar sheet of the heads of four men was sold Christie's (London, 1 july 1986, lot 41) [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. 1104]

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Baccio (Bartolomeo, Brandini) Bandinelli | Huvudstudier | Nationalmuseum

Baccio (Bartolomeo, Brandini) Bandinelli | Head studies | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2011

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2009

Titel (sv): Huvudstudier
Titel (en): Head studies
Titel i inventariet (sv): Etude. Nio diverse manshufvuden de flesta med skägg
Titel (fr): Étude de neuf têtes d'hommes

Title (sv): Huvudstudier
Title (en): Head studies
Inventory title (sv): Etude. Nio diverse manshufvuden de flesta med skägg
Title (fr): Étude de neuf têtes d'hommes