Studies of Hands (recto); Sketch of a Child's Head (verso) (c. 1586): Art, History and Details

Studies of Hands (recto); Sketch of a Child's Head (verso) (c. 1586) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Carletto Caliari (Italian, 1570–1596).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The talented second-born son of Italian Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese, Carletto Caliari assisted his father in the final years of the celebrated artist’s life. Successful Venetian painting studios were run as workshops, with staffs of trained apprentices working under a master’s supervision to simultaneously execute a multitude of commissions. Drawings such as this study of expressive hand gestures were used as reference materials to ensure stylistic consistency within the shop.

Object facts

• Title: Studies of Hands (recto); Sketch of a Child's Head (verso)
• Date: c. 1586
• Creator attribution: Carletto Caliari (Italian, 1570–1596)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: charcoal (stumped in places) heightened with white chalk; black chalk with pen and brown ink
• Dimensions: Sheet: 27.5 x 17.8 cm (10 13/16 x 7 in.)
• Collection: DR - Italian
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1929.549

A detail from the museum

The inscription that identifies the artist in brown ink on this drawing is not a signature but rather an identification of the artist by a later hand, perhaps an owner of the drawing.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry. "'The Judgement of Paris,' a Drawing Attributed to Paolo Veronese." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34, no. 7 (September 1947): 176-177. Only recto side is reproduced.
• Francis, Henry Sayles. Venetian Tradition: Catalogue of the Exhibition. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956.
• Marciari, John. "The Drawings of Veronese," in Brilliant, Virginia, et al. Paolo Veronese: A Master and His Workshop in Renaissance Venice. London, England: Scala, 2012.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.