Full-length Drapery Study, with Sketch of a Right Foot

Federico Barocci

c. 1580–1600

Black chalk with white heightening on tan paper

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This luminous drapery study appears to have been inspired by a figure the artist saw in a painting rather than by a live model. The garment resembles the habit of a Dominican friar (white tunic and scapular beneath a black cloak), a fact that may one day provide a clue to the artist's identity-or at least the altarpiece he or she was studying. Rather than carefully modeling the figure, the artist focused on the shimmering effects and energetic movement of the drapery, which twists and flutters around the turning body. Apparently having run out of room for the figure's right foot at the bottom of the sheet, the artists inserted a lar