# Head of an Executioner

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/lomazzo-giovan-paolo-rd3533c50c8a6f6/head-of-an-executioner-r2c6bc957a7f927>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [LOMAZZO, Giovan Paolo](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/lomazzo-giovan-paolo-rd3533c50c8a6f6>)
- Date: 1551-1600
- Technique: Black pencil on thorn white paper, 119 x 92 mm

## Commentary

Giovan Paolo Lomazzo joined with Aurelio Luini and other artists to found the satirical Accademia della Val di Blenio in 1560. The academy&#39;s popular, anticlassical aesthetic led to a rereading and revaluation of Leonardo&#39;s graphic legacy. In their portraits, the members of this group represents mocking and remorselessly brutal features that were broadly adapted from Leonardo&#39;s grotesque heads but reinvented in accordance with their own interest in a heightened realism. One such drawing by Lomazzo features the grim face of an executioner.

## Related artworks

- [Self-Portrait as Abbot of the Accademia della Val di Blenio](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/lomazzo-giovan-paolo-rd3533c50c8a6f6/self-portrait-as-abbot-of-the-accademia-della-val-di-blenio-r2234f43f7f6954>)
- [Self-Portrait](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/lomazzo-giovan-paolo-rd3533c50c8a6f6/self-portrait-rb97c1cf92d87ba>)
- [Study of a Prophet](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/lomazzo-giovan-paolo-rd3533c50c8a6f6/study-of-a-prophet-r83d481972a6545>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)