This drawing is preparatory for an altarpiece depicting the ecstasy of the Blessed Ambrogio Patrizi (1266–1328). In line with the developing naturalism of early Baroque art, Manetti based his painted image of the monk on a life drawing—not of a monk in ecstasy, but of a youth posing in the studio, dressed in monk’s robes and apparently asleep against a pile of books.
Rutilio Manetti (1571–1639), A Life Study: A Monk Sleeping against a Pile of Books, 1616. Purchased on the Fairfax Murray Society Fund, 2019.102.