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

Head of an Elderly Man Wearing a Hat

c. 1500
Metalpoint and white highlighting on pink prepared paper, 295 x 210 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 old man in the present drawing has a genuinely pensive character and is quite moving. This drawing is perhaps the finest of the artist's drawing of old men.