Lodovico CARDI, known as Il CIGOLI (San Miniato 1559 - Rome 1613) Study of a monk's head Paper marouflé on parquet panel. Height 32 Width 24 cm Provenance: Château de Sourches. We suggest linking this study to a series of similarly sized portraits of monks painted on paper, held in several private collections in Paris, London and Florence, in the collection of Massimo Vezzosi. Massimo Vezzosi collection. The latter is annotated on the reverse "Il Cardi da Cigoli". They reappeared separately in the late 1990s and early 2000s, mostly in Paris, at the Tajan study, Galerie Virginie Pitchal and Galerie Bresset. Franco Moro proposed a first collection of three of them in his book Viaggio nel Seicento Toscano. Dipinti e disegni inediti, Mantua, Publi Paolini, 2006, pp.43-46, then two more were added to this group by Galerie Mendes in Paris (catalogs of the exhibitions De l'ombre d'Apelle, Paris, Galerie Mendes, 2010, by Bertrand Dumas and Philippe Esteves Mendes; Tableaux pour un cabinet, Galerie Mendes, Paris, 2012,Bertrand Dumas). After being trained in the Renaissance tradition by the Florentine Mannerist artists Allori, Cigoli was influenced by Correggio and Baroche. He had a prominent career at the Medici Court, but from his first stay in Rome in 1603, he was interested in the naturalist trend initiated by the Carracci and Caravaggio. These dal vero studies of Franciscan monks, dated circa 1610, illustrate his willingness to adapt to this new style. With genuine psychological acuity, the artist captures the inner life of his models and their spiritual preoccupations. In addition, Cigoli produced several studies of faces in oil on canvas, as an exercise in the practice of reality, in the quest for verisimilitude, and without them being preparatory or directly related to his great religious compositions (Franco Faranda, Ludovico Ciardi detto il Cigoli, Rome, De Luca Editori, 1986, p.157, p.170, p.175). We thank Mr. anco Moro for confirming the attribution to Cigoli by direct examination of the work on January 13, 2026.