This intense female head in black stone is a preparatory drawing by Giulio Romano for the fresco with the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche in Palazzo Te in Mantua. The preparatory cartoon for the fresco was taken from this sheet, whose main features are entirely perforated for carrying over, and is no longer preserved today because the transfer to the wall often irreparably damages the cardboard. Collectors of all times have loved preparatory drawings and cartoons very much, to the point that they were often quoted as much as paintings. The composition of which this drawing is part - the scene of the wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche - was conceived by Giulio Romano on the basis of the painting of the same subject frescoed by Raphael in the villa Farnesina for Agostino Chigi, a construction site in which Giulio himself was very active.