The drawing has been identified as a preparatory study for the figure of the Cumaean Sibyl in the vault of the Sistine Chapel, the great masterpiece created by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. It is undoubtedly a study from life by a male model, of which Michelangelo used it to elaborate the dynamism and the expressive form of the face. In the transition to the fresco, all that remained was to add the turbaned headdress that crowns the Sibyl in the fresco in the Vatican chapel. The sheet, a graphic masterpiece of the Renaissance, is a very important testimony of the artist's working method, who used drawing as a means to achieve the artistic goals he proposed.
