Watermark: fragmentary.
The present sheet is the preparatory drawing for the full-page illustration of Canto XVIII, Ott. 34.35 of "La Gerusalemme Liberata". The corresponding finished drawing is in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library, and is signed and dated by the artist. The print, in the opposite direction, was executed by Charles Emmanuel, engraver, disciple de Baquoy (1744-1802), and precedes p. 217 of Volume II of the second edition of 1785-1786, a copy of which is in the Gordon Ray Collection at the Morgan Library. The present sheet is the preparatory drawing for the headpiece to Canto XVIII, Ott. 98. The corresponding finished drawing is in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library, and is signed and dated by the artist.
Inscribed in pen and brown ink, above the design, "5. / Canto XVIII. Ott. 98. / ott. 51. / de droitte a gauche". Collector's mark of the Comte Nicholas A. Koucheleff-Bezborodko stamped in blue at lower right corner (Lugt 1629).
Tasso, Torquato, 1544-1595. Gerusalemme liberata.
Koucheleff-Bezborodko, Nicolas A., Comte, 1834-1862, former owner.
Suchtelen, J. P. van, Comte, 1751-1836, former owner.
Wasserman, Eugène von, former owner.
Willems, Jacques, 1870-1957, former owner.
Stein, Adolphe, former owner.