LORENZO DI CREDI
(b. ca. 1459, Firenze, d. 1537, Firenze)

Bust of a Boy Wearing a Cap

c. 1480
Metalpoint with white highlights on pale brownish pink prepared paper, 245 x 188 mm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

None of Lorenzo di Credi's easel portraits, for which he drew beautiful studies, have come down to us. The surviving easel portraits are rather tame, whereas the portrait drawings are among the best things he ever did.

The Bust of a Boy must have been made as a workshop exercise; at least two other sheets by Lorenzo di Credi depict the similar workshop assistants with their heads turned and their eyes looking up.