Study of a female face Bolognese school, second half 17th century charcoal and coloured chalk on laid paper 31 x 24.5 cm The sheet depicts a young female figure caught in foreshortening from below, with her face tilted to the right and her gaze turned upwards according to an expressive style of intense emotional participation. The soft chiaroscuro construction of the complexion, achieved through delicate rosy tones, is combined with the fluid and vibrant rendering of the hair, treated by means of a rapid and atmospheric stroke that lends the image a strong painterly quality. The composition reveals a figurative culture situated between the late Mannerist tradition of Federico Barocci and the developments of the Bolognese Baroque culminating in the work of Domenico Maria Canuti.The intense expressive sweetness of the face, the luministic sensitivity and the almost ecstatic character of the image indeed recall the famous Baroque graphic style, whose atmospheric softness, luminous vibration and devout sentiment the sheet seems to absorb. At the same time, the monumental breadth of the formal construction, the theatricality of the close-up framing and the greater plastic energy bring the work closer to the Emilian culture of the second half of the 17th century, in particular to the Bolognese milieu gravitating around Canuti and the great illusionistic decoration of Bologna. The head thus appears to be conceived not as a simple naturalistic study, but as an ideal model intended for the preparation of sacred or allegorical figures for a composition of broader scope.The graphic technique, rich in tonal overlays and highlights, accentuates the pictorial quality of the sheet and bears witness to a highly refined academic practice, typical of the Bolognese school between the 17th and early 18th century. The paper, laid and handmade, has a circular watermark visible against the light, an element compatible with an advanced 17th-century chronology. The work is a significant testimony of the persistence of Barocci's lesson in Baroque Emilia and its transformation in a more monumental and theatrical sense in the figurative culture leading to Domenico Maria Canuti and the great Bolognese decorative season.