Description: VERSO (visible through the paper): Head of a Christ.

Inscribed at lower left in pen and brown ink: siranni scolari de guido

Catherine Monbeig Goguel attributed this drawing to Rosselli and discovered that this is a preparatory figure study for the "Invention of the True Cross" (c. 1644), in the Florentine church of S. Gaetano (formerly S. Michele Berteldi). Baldinucci admired Rosselli's painting, which is the altarpiece of the Chapel of St. Helen. The chapel also contains frescoes by two other important Florentine artists, Jacopo Vignali and Giovanni Bilivert. The present drawing is a figure study for the boy who supports one of the crosses at the left of the picture. His lower right leg is barely indicated because it is blocked from view by a seated woman in the final painting. A "modello" for the picture, showing the boy in exactly the same position, but with less detail in his hair and drapery, is in the Instituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome (F.C. 124993).  [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. 1163]

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Matteo Rosselli | Stående man, detaljstudie för en korsresning | Nationalmuseum