An etching of the head and shoulders of a man in a feathered fur turban. He faces three-quarters to the right, and gazes downwards.
The artist's monogram is at upper right, followed by the inscription; CASTLIONUS / GEONVESE.

During the 1640s Castiglione produced two series of etchings of heads, both large and small. He explored a wide range of cultural and physiognomic types – crooked and aquiline noses, turbans and elaborate jewellery, figures reading a scroll or blowing a horn. Castiglione was not merely entertaining the viewer: he was also demonstrating his inventiveness and his ability to produce dramatic lighting with nothing more than an etcher’s needle.