Head of a Man Wearing a Cap
ca. 1495–1505
Medium
Metalpoint, heightened with brush and white, on reddish orange prepared paper.
Dimensions
11 1/8 x 8 3/16 in. (28.3 x 20.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Robert Lehman Collection
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number
1975.1.329
Tags
Art Historical Context
Domenico Ghirlandaio, a leading Florentine Renaissance artist known for his vivid frescoes and precise portraits, created *Head of a Man Wearing a Cap* around 1495–1505. This intimate drawing captures the thoughtful gaze and textured details of an everyday man, reflecting the Renaissance fascination with individualized likenesses. Ghirlandaio's workshop trained masters like Michelangelo, and his works often bridged the vivid realism of 15th-century Florence with emerging High Renaissance ideals. Executed in metalpoint—a fine stylus technique on specially prepared reddish-orange paper, heighte...