Studienblatt_ Der Kopf eines bärtigen Mannes, drei Engelsköpfe und ein liegender Männerakt 

This is "Studienblatt: Der Kopf eines bärtigen Mannes, drei Engelsköpfe und ein liegender Männerakt", a red chalk drawing by Ventura Salimbeni from around the turn of the 17th century. Salimbeni lived in a time of religious reform and Counter-Reformation art, where artists were encouraged to create works that would inspire piety. Here, we see a range of studies: the head of a bearded man, three cherubic heads, and a reclining male nude. The bearded man could represent wisdom or age, while the cherubs represent innocence and divine love. As a study sheet, this work gives us insight into the artist's process as he’s thinking through themes of spirituality, humanity, and idealised beauty. The male nude, though lightly sketched, grounds the ethereal nature of the angels in earthly physicality. Salimbeni seems to be considering the links between the human and the divine, and how they might coexist in a single frame. This drawing invites us to reflect on the tensions between the earthly and the heavenly, the old and the young, and the ideal and the real.