Head of a young boy

The late Mario di Giampaolo recognized this large sheet as a typical work by the elusive Cremonese artist Luca Cattapane, who was trained under Vincenzo Campi. Cattapane's drawings were praised by early sources, including Baldinucci who admired the artist's invention and noted similarities between his sheets and Cambiaso's (Notizie dei professori, II, ed. Florence, 1846, p. 489). The present work relates to other bold head studies in red chalk in the Uffizi (15132F, 15134F), similarly foreshortened and connected to the Virgin with Saints Gregory XIV, Paul and Anthony Abbot in Cremona Cathedral, signed and dated 1593 (see G. Bora, 'Luca Cattapane', in I Campi, exhib. cat., Cremona, 1985, p. 316, ill. and S. Bandera, 'Una corrispondenza cremonese per Leopoldo de' Medici', Paragone, no. 347, 1979, pl. 38a).