Studio of Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560-1609 Rome) Head study of a youth in profileStudio of Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560-1609 Rome)Head study of a youth in profile oil on inscribed paper, laid down on canvas40.5 x 28.2cm (15 15/16 x 11 1/8in).ProvenanceThe Collection of Dr. Alfred Bader, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1970s Private Collection, UKWhile scholarship is divided about which ones of a group of oil sketches on paper, like the present study, were executed by Annibale Carracci himself, or by other members of his studio, it is particularly interesting to note that this sketch was executed on paper recycled from a ledger or account book of some kind, as is the case with a number of others from this group, albeit not the same ledgers in every case, since the line spacing and handwriting differ in certain instances. The present sketch is characteristic of the free and informal studies that reflected Annibale's groundbreaking approach. His experimental and naturalistic style was both simple and direct, which contrasted markedly with the formulaic methods of his Mannerist contemporaries, leading to a profound revolution in Italian art. This technique was founded on the practice of Annibale, alongside his brother, Agostino and their cousin Ludovico, who established an Academy in their Bologna studio which focused on drawing from live models (as well as from the natural world and from dead corpses) as a preliminary for their finished compositions. In certain instances, as we find here, this exploratory experimentation involved a yet further, intermediary stage of sketching in oil. In his study of Annibale's working methods, Donald Posner suggested that Annibale learned his technique of sketching in oil on paper from Venetian painters prior to his return to Bologna in 1588 (D. Posner, Annibale Carracci: A Study in the Reform of Italian Painting around 1590, London, 1971, p. 25). Since Posner identified the Portrait of a bearded man (formerly in the Ganz Collection, subsequently with Luca Baroni Ltd. and now in a private collection), a number of other head studies, all executed in oil on paper but varying considerably in quality, have come to light, including a group of six portraits of blind men and women, which have been attributed both to Annibale and to his workshop. A Head of an old woman, datable to the 1590s (in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) was also identified by Xavier Bray to be related in style to these head studies by Annibale, an opinion that is now widely accepted; while a further Portrait of an old woman in a London private collection, formerly at Locko Park, is also now generally accepted as autograph. Daniele Benati has dated most of the sketches to the first half of the 1580s; while Aidan Weston-Lewis has suggested an even earlier date. Although it seems likely that a great number of such sketches were made at the time, few have survived.