MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
(b. 1475, Caprese, d. 1564, Roma)

Study for Cleopatra (verso)

c. 1533
Black chalk on paper, 225 x 170 mm
Casa Buonarroti, Florence

On the verso of the sheet which depicts on the recto the half-length figure of Cleopatra, an ideal female portrait by Michelangelo, a study for Cleopatra can be seen. To the left of this study a Leonardesque sketch of an elderly man in profile with a caricatured skin and nose is visible.