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Head of a Man

Domenico Campagnola

1532

ink

paper

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance

Dominant colour

Head of a Man is a 1532 ink by Domenico Campagnola, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.

Who painted this?: Domenico Campagnola
When & what style?: 1532 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: National Gallery of Art

About this work

This sketch shows a man’s face and shoulders in quick, scratchy lines. The ink is dark brown, and the paper has a rough texture. You can see the folds of his clothing and the shape of his hair, but the details are loose and sketchy. The artist used a lot of overlapping lines to build up shadows and texture—this is called cross-hatching. It looks like a quick study, maybe for a bigger painting. Try looking up cross-hatching to see how other artists used this technique.