Scott Buckle identifies the model as being Alessandro di Marco and suggests that the head is possibly a study for the poet at the foot of the Wheel in the early version of The Wheel of Fortune, Equally it is close to the head of the Centaur in the background of The Feast of Peleus of the same date.
This drawing is very much in the style of Burne-Jones's brother-in-law, Sir Edward John Poynter.