Study of a head of a young man with long flowing hair. The subject looks straight at the viewer, his hair parted down the middle. Plain background.
The Rome commission was the only mosaic that Burne-Jones designed and this stylised drawing is a stage in the development of converting his watercolour designs into a form suitable for the application to mosaic. He began designing the apse dome in 1881, which was to depict the Heavenly Jerusalem with Christ at its centre, seated, with his face as the pivot of the entire scheme.