The invention and handling are in fact typical of Passerotti’s more rapidly drawn sketches. Compared with the better-known, finished pen studies, such as Male Head (D1781), his pen line here seems all [+]
Past collectors commonly mistook Passerotti’s academic studies from the nude for the work of the Florentine Bandinelli (1493-1560). The handling of this drawing is after him in this technique in the M [+]
Inscribed in the lower left corner in brown ink: Michelangiolo Fior. fec. In spite of the old attribution, the drawing was rightly placed in Fernández Durán collection, on his mount, as: [+]
The model was presumably a bronze statuette, or a plaster cast from such a statuette. To gain proficiency in drawing the human figure artists frequently taught their pupils from such casts and models. [+]