Upon entering the collection, the drawing was thought to date from the sixteenth century. It seems, however, to be later, and was probably created in Florence in the first half of the seventeenth century. The style is reminiscent of that of Giovanni Biliverti and his pupil Bartolomeo Salvestrini.
Verso apparently by a later hand than recto.
Formerly attributed to Anonymous, Italian School, mid-16th cent.
Watermark: serpent (cf. Briquet 13642; Milan, around 1547).
Inscribed at lower left in black chalk, "originale"; in graphite, "Gio. da Udine"; at lower center in black chalk, "1292(?);" on verso at lower right, in pen and brown ink, with pen trials, "Io a~ d d d dd / dd."
Anonymous, Italian School, 16th cent., Formerly attributed to.
Schilling, Edmund, 1888-1974, former owner.
Manley, Otto, -1989, former owner.
Selected references: Fellows Report 1989, 350 (as Italian School, mid-sixteenth century).
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twenty-First Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984-1986. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1989, p. 350.