Men with Halberds

This preparatory silverpoint study captures four men in 16th-century military attire, leaning on their halberds. The sketch illustrates the artist's focus on weight and posture, using light, fluid lines to define the positioning of limbs and the fall of clothing. These figures appear as a group of three on the left and a single isolated figure on the right, exploring different ways the guards might stand within a larger composition.

This drawing is a study for the Swiss Guards in the 'Mass at Bolsena' fresco in the Vatican's Stanza d'Eliodoro. The intellectual program of these rooms was shaped by the Christian Kabbalist and theologian Egidio da Viterbo, reflecting the High Renaissance effort to synthesize ancient wisdom and Neoplatonism with Church doctrine and temporal power.