Walker identified this as a Campagnola of the later career, and the Tietzes hesitated and associated it with Campagnola’s workshop, but Nickel accepts it as the master’s work, comparing it to drawings like one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 07.283.15), which he dates to the late 1540s.
Inscribed on verso, at bottom right corner, beneath lining, "Campagnola"; on mount, underneath drawing, in pen and light brown ink, with what seems to be a transcription of Richardson's pressmarks from now lost, Richardson mount; at upper left, "154"; at upper right, "65v (?) / L 50"; at upper center, "P 55 / I (or Y) 68 / Z"; on verso of lining, in graphite, "5"; also bottom center of mount, in graphite, "5".
Watermark: Open crown surmounted by a six-pointed star (cf. Briquet II, 4835. Prague, 1561; Lucca, 1565-66; Rome, 1567-68).
Lely, Peter, Sir, 1618-1680, former owner.
Richardson, Jonathan, 1665-1745, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.
Walker 1941, 210; Tietze and Tietze-Conrat, 1944, 130, no. 520; Nickel 2017, cat. 234.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, IV, 65, repr.