The study at the top of the sheet is copied from the torso of Michelangelo´s Risen Christ in S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, commissioned in 1514. In the statue, Christ holds the sponge, or cloth, impregnated with vinegar, against the side of the Cross. The inscription Buonarroti was perhaps written as a reference to the model for the principal study. The study of a female head was doubtless taken from some ancient statue. The drawing was rightly placed in the collections of Fernández Duran as by Passerotti, and it is indeed an extremely fine and typical example of the finished pen drawings of the master.

Turner, Nicholas, From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Chicago, Art Services International, 2008, p.342