Jugendlicher Kopf im Profil nach rechts, emporblickend 

Editor: This chalk drawing, titled "Jugendlicher Kopf im Profil nach rechts, emporblickend," appears to be a preparatory sketch. Its lines feel both confident and exploratory, capturing the youth's upward gaze, which seems hopeful, even reverent. What stands out to you in its composition? Curator: The masterful rendering of form using solely line and tone is indeed striking. Note how Maratti uses hatching and cross-hatching to define the contours of the face and neck, building volume and suggesting the play of light across the surfaces. The precision of line in defining musculature suggests both careful observation and deep understanding of anatomical structure. It is tempting to see this as less a study in character or emotion, and more an exploration of shape and form, through close engagement with line as primary means. Editor: So the gaze isn’t necessarily about religious ecstasy, but a way to lengthen the neck? Curator: Precisely. While one cannot entirely dismiss a possible iconographic reading, such would remain necessarily secondary to an appreciation of the formal devices enacted by Maratti here. What do you notice of the treatment of the hair? Editor: It is a mass of tight curls! And, each seems painstakingly rendered, conveying volume. Curator: Precisely! Look at how the marks give three-dimensionality to those curls – how they frame the composition with their spiraling energy. Editor: This new lens brings everything into a clear focus! I feel equipped to look closer now, focusing on composition rather than searching for some meaning outside of its form. Curator: Excellent! Shifting our gaze to line, shape, and form reveals previously unseen complexities in representational choices, transforming this figure into an exquisite study of baroque aesthetic practice.