Study Head of a Bearded Man

In the upper-left corner of this painting, just barely visible against the black background, a monogram reading FFF identifies the artist as Frans Floris, who operated a large and influential workshop in Antwerp. This panel served as a head study (possibly of Hercules), a technique Floris often used to work through expressions and characters for finished compositions. His practice anticipated the tronie—Dutch for “head”—studies popular in the 17th century among artists such as Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens.