Head of a putto

This expressive head closely recalls the putti in a monumental cartoon, Putti playing with hoops, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 2013.117; D. Ekserdjian, Correggio and Parmigianino. Art in Parma during the Sixteenth Century, exhib. cat., Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, 2016, no. 83, ill.). The cartoon was used by Anselmi, who sometimes collaborated with Parmigianino, for an important commission in Parma Cathedral in 1548.

This drawing was likely trimmed from a larger sheet and was probably created as a preparatory study for the same project. Other red chalk studies of putti connected to the decoration of the Cathedral exist, one is at the Courtauld Gallery (inv. D.1978.PG.356; The Art of Experiment. Parmigianino at The Courtauld, exhib. cat., London, The Courtauld Gallery, 2022, p. 19). The attribution to Anselmi, first proposed by David Ekserdjian, has been later confirmed also by Elisabetta Fadda.