Seated Male Figure with the Head of an Onlooker (recto); Standing Male Figure in a Monk's Habit (verso)

Art Historical Context

This double-sided drawing by Bernardino Poccetti, a Flor artist active during the late Renaissance (1548–1612), the immediacy of his preparatory sketches. On the recto, a seated male figure shares the composition with the probing head of an onlooker suggesting a moment of interaction or narrative tension. Flipped over, the verso reveals a male clad in a monk's habit evoking the religious themes prevalent in Poccetti's frescoes for churches like Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Measuring just 15½ × 9⅜ inches, this intimate sheet invites close viewing, revealing the artist's fluid exploration of human form. Crafted in charcoal with subtle white chalk highlights, the work exemplifies Renaissance drawing techniques. Charcoal allowed Poccetti to achieve bold contours and rich tonal modeling, while chalk accents lend a luminous three-dimensionality to the figures' drapery and faces. Such mixed-media sketches were vital tools for Mannerist artists like Poccetti, bridging studio preparation and monumental commissions. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bruno de Bayser, 2000), this piece highlights Poccetti's underappreciated draftsmanship amid his fame for vibrant fresco cycles. It offers a window into 16th-century Italian workshops, where everyday studies fueled grand religious art.

About the Artist

Bernardino Poccetti · 1548–1612

Italian late Renaissance fresco painter, Florence. Comment on works: religious; in Pilkington he is credited with flower paintings