The head and shoulders of a Dominican monk in prayer turned to the right, with a subsidiary study of his head

The sheet is similar in subject and handling to several studies for the Beati in the choir frescoes of the Church of San Girolamo della Certosa, Bologna, executed by Cesi during the period 1612-16. Comparable drawings by Cesi are in Chicago (M. Cazort and C. Johnston, Bolognese Drawings in North American Collections, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1982, no. 19) and the Louvre (C. Legrand, Le dessin à Bologne, 1580-1620, La réforme des trois Carracci, exhib. cat., Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1994, no. 21).