Study for the Head of St. Michael
1633
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1633
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a young face in black chalk, eyes lifted, lips parted as if about to speak. This is a practice sheet for a ceiling fresco—an angel’s head that would later gaze down from a church dome. The artist used soft shading to make the skin look almost alive, a trick he learned from older Italian drawings. The lines are so light you can barely see where the cheek ends and the shadow begins. Look up *sfumato* to see how artists blurred edges like this.
