Grotesque Head With a Large Eyebrow Looking to the Left Within a Circle
1727
Medium
Pen and brown ink
Dimensions
sheet: 12 7/8 x 8 1/2 in. (32.7 x 21.6 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Janos Scholz, 1960
Accession Number
60.541.12
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the vibrant world of 18th-century draftsmanship, Gaetano Piccini'sGrotesque Head With a Large Eyebrow Looking to Left Within a Circle*1727) captures the whimsical yet uncanny spirit of the grotesque tradition. Created with pen and brown ink on a modest sheet measuring 12 7/8 x 8 1/2 inches, this drawing exemplifies Piccini's skill in rendering exaggerated facial features—here, a bulging eyebrow and intense gaze framed within a circular border. Active in Rome during the late Baroque period, Piccini drew inspiration from Renaissance masters like Leonardo da Vinci, whose studies of monstrous h...