Fünf verschiedene Köpfe, einer davon mit Turban, vier davon den Blick nach rechts gerichtet 

Guercino made this red chalk drawing of five heads, now in the Städel Museum, as studies for larger compositions. In the 17th century, artists like Guercino often relied on the "disegno" tradition: the idea that drawing was the foundation of all artistic practice. During the Italian Baroque, academies played a crucial role in shaping artistic standards and taste. Guercino founded his own school, and drawings like these would have been teaching tools, exploring human expression. He’s playing with archetypes of the time – note, for example, the exotic "Turk" in his turban. The fact that four out of five heads turn to the right might suggest that this image was intended as a preparatory study for a larger piece with multiple figures interacting with each other. To understand Guercino's artistic choices, we can look at treatises on art theory from his time. These texts reveal the social expectations placed on artists and the kinds of knowledge they were expected to possess. By studying these resources, we gain insight into the meaning of art as something embedded in social and institutional contexts.