Seated Crowned Male Figure Holding a Book or Scroll (recto); Seated Nude Boy (verso) 1548 - 1612

Bernardino Poccetti sketched this crowned male figure holding a book or scroll, in pen and brown ink with blue wash, sometime between 1548 and 1612. During Poccetti’s lifetime, the Catholic Church wielded enormous power, setting standards for artistic expression. But the artist’s choice to depict the figure with a visible, muscular body challenges the church's more conservative ideals. The figure's strong, worldly presence subverts traditional religious iconography. This drawing, like much of Poccetti's work, reflects the intersection of religious expectation, and the celebration of human form characteristic of the Renaissance. There is an emotional tension in the piece. The figure's intellectual authority is undeniable, yet he is also portrayed as an accessible, human presence. Poccetti asks us to consider the multifaceted nature of power—both divine and earthly—and the ways in which these realms intersect in our understanding of self.