Watermark: none.
Formerly attributed to Giovanni Mario Verdizotti, Venice 1524/25-1600.
The drawing entered the Morgan in 1982 under the name of Giovanni Maria Verdizotti (1524/25-1600), a pupil and friend of Titian in Venice. The following year it was correctly identified and published by Bert Meijer as the work of Pauwels Franck, the Fleming who settled in Venice in around 1573 and was there known as Paolo Fiammingo or Paolo dei Franceschi. The drawing accords well in style with a further drawing attributed by Meijer to Franck, this being the Fall of Phaeton of around 1580 in the Uffizi (inv. 2401F; Venice 1999, no. 182, repr.).
Inscribed at upper center, in pen and brown ink, by the artist, "Unione"; above and to the left, in pen and brown ink, by the artist; "Per(?)V"; at lower left, in pen and brown ink, by the artist?, "no. [o superscript] 1"; to the right, in dark red chalk, "MW (ligated)"; on verso, at upper center, in pen and black? ink, visible under transmitted light, "MW (ligated)"; on verso of mount, along the left edge, in pen and brown ink, by Ryhiner, "Portefeuille N. 55 Dessein N. 9."
Verdizotti, Giovanni Mario, 1525-1600, Formerly attributed to.
Ryhiner, Achille, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Stampfle, Felice, with the assistance of Ruth S. Kraemer and Jane Shoaf Turner. Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1991, p. 32, no. 57 (repr.).
Meijer 1983, pp. 25, 26, fig. 15 (Paolo Fiammingo).
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twentieth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1981-1983. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, p. 258 (Verdizotti).