Head of a woman with lowered eyes and a fillet
Black chalk head study with pale colour, heavily stained
A woman's head is shown almost frontally, slightly inclined, the eyes lowered and the features calm, framed above by a soft coiffure bound with a zig-zag fillet and by a coil of curling hair falling at the right side. The drawing is in black chalk with touches of pale blue-grey wash on the face. The sheet is badly stained, abraded and foxed, the whole lower half and neck lost in dark blotches, and a Uffizi collection stamp appears at the lower right.
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Downcast head of a woman
The head is nearly frontal with a gentle tilt, the lidded eyes cast down and the mouth softly closed, giving a meditative expression. A patterned fillet crosses the brow and a spiralling lock of hair falls beside the right cheek. Only the head is fully worked; the neck and shoulders dissolve into staining.
Chalk and wash modelling of the face
Black chalk describes the contours and the shadowed sockets while a pale cool wash lightens the forehead, cheeks and nose to suggest rounded relief. The delicate light-and-shade handling of the face contrasts with the coarse darkening of the damaged surrounding paper.