The imposing figure of a bishop holding a long taper stick and climbing the stairs fills this slightly irregularly shaped drawing. As he mounts the stairs, the bishop turns to gaze sadly out at the viewer.
After delicately drawing in the man's form with pen and brown wash, Vittore Carpaccio went over his long cape, beard, and pointed hat with fine lines of white bodycolor, giving a sense of shimmering texture to the drapery's deep folds. He made this drawing as a preparatory study for part of a painting, completed in 1493.
The verso, by contrast, is a fragmentary study related to a much later picture. This horizontal image shows the legs of a seated figure that have been delicately draped with cloth. Here Carpaccio used the white bodycolor not only to create highlights in the fabric but also to suggest the form and position of the legs as they lift and shape their flimsy covering.