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

Bust of a Young Man (recto)

1524-25
Red chalk, 282 x 200 mm
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

This impressive portrait is one of Michelangelo's few extant portrait drawings in which rather unattractive facial features are overstated, making them slightly bizarre in a portrayal that verges on a caricature. The intended purpose of the portrait, and the dating are subject of scholarly debate.

On the verso of the sheet, a man lifting a boar is drawn in red chalk.