Before entering Mariette's collection, this drawing belonged to Pierre Crozat (1665-1740), a wealthy banker who was a close friend and fellow collector. In the catalogue of the Crozat sale, compiled by Mariette himself, the sheet was described as a "capital drawing" by the celebrated Mannerist Parmigianino. Only in the twentieth century have scholars recognized in this work the hand of Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, a painter whose reputation had been forgotten in Mariette's time but who was one of Parmigianino's most talented successors in sixteenth century Parma. -- Exhibition Label, from "Pierre-Jean Mariette and the Art of Collecting Drawings."
Inscribed at lower right, in pen and brown ink: "francesco Parmesan"; to the right of this, in darker ink: "3"; on verso, at lower edge, in graphite: "Vte[te superscript] Mariette No[o superscript] 504 300 livres"; on separate piece of paper pasted in lower right corner of verso, stamped in black ink and underlined in red ink: "278".
Watermark: Possibly letters "GH" with trefoil above on drawing, and stem with "grapes" at end (probably in lining?). Partly indecipherable because of lining.
Crozat, M. (Pierre), 1661-1740, former owner.
La Tour du Pin Gouvernet, Charles-Frédéric, marquis de, 1694-1775, former owner.
Mariette, Pierre-Jean, 1694-1774, former owner.
Destailleur, Hippolyte Alexandre Gabriel Walter, 1822-1893, former owner.
Beurdeley, Alfred, 1847-1919, former owner.
Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 83.
Selected references: Popham 1964, no. 25; Copertini 1968, 125n2; Popham and Di Giampaolo 1971, no. 16; Di Giampaolo et al. 1979, no. 18; Di Giampaolo 1997, no. 118.