Head of a satyr, looking down

Sensitively drawn in red chalk, this study relates to Giovanni da San Giovanni’s frescoes in the Salone degli Argenti at Palazzo Pitti, Florence (1635), where many satyrs with similarly pointy faces appear in the foreground of the mural Expulsion of Muses and Poets from Mount Parnassus. Following the principles of life drawing learned from his master Matteo Rosselli, this head study conveys a striking realism through the soft modelling of the chalk. Giovanni’s outstanding talent as a draughtsman and devotion to this medium were celebrated by his biographer, Filippo Baldinucci, who described ‘his immoderate commitment to the study of drawing’ (Baldinucci, Opere, XI, Notizie de’ professori del disegno, Milan, 1812, p. 111).