Two Confronting Grotesque Heads
Red-chalk caricatures of a pointing figure and a scowling curly-haired man
Two grotesque heads face one another across a sheet drawn in red chalk. At the left a figure with a strangely elongated, deformed head and sagging features leans in and points a finger toward the other. At the right a heavy-featured man with a thick head of curling hair scowls back, his brow furrowed and cheeks and jaw drawn into an exaggerated frown. The pairing sets the two caricatured types in confrontation, and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana collector's stamp appears at the lower right.
On this page
Pointing figure at the left
The left figure has a tall, misshapen head and slack, aged features drawn in red chalk. It leans forward and thrusts out a pointing finger toward the head opposite. Loose strokes below indicate a draped shoulder and arm.
Scowling curly-haired man at the right
The right head is a heavy-set man with a mass of curling hair, a deeply furrowed brow and a downturned scowling mouth. The aged features are exaggerated into a caricature and modelled with dense red-chalk shading. His collar and shoulders are lightly sketched below.