Head of a Man Looking Up, ca. 1527
Black chalk, with later red chalk additions
9 3/4 x 6 15/16 in. (24.7 x 17.7 cm)
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; purchased, 1944
© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The chalk is applied confidently in this study for St. Joseph in Andrea's Holy Family with St. John the Baptist, a composition known in several copies (the autograph version is most likely in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg). The model's hair frames his upturned face like a mane, and varied handling conveys the difference between the texture of the hair on his head and in his beard.