Two Nude Men
by ROMANINO, Girolamo, Pen and brown ink with brown wash on yellowed paper, 263 x 207 mm
The subject of this enigmatic drawing is not known. Proposals to identify the subject as an allegory or a mythological scene are speculative. It is possible that Romanino simply have undertaken to produce an amusing drawing of two unabashedly immodest beings engaged in primal, animalistic behaviour. The verso of the sheet contains a caricatural profile, it seems also to point to the artist’s humorous intentions.