This drawing was given to Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570) at least since the Jacques Auguste Boussac sale in 1926, and it entered the collection of the Morgan Library & Museum under that attribution. It is, however, a copy, presumably by a sixteenth-century Italian artist, after a preparatory study by Francesco Salviati in the British Museum (inv. 1946-7-13-52) for a fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Catherine Monbeig Goguel dates the original British Museum sheet ca. 1543-1544 (Catherine Monbeig Goguel, Francesco Salviati, 1510-1563, ou, La bella maniera. Paris, 1998, no.55, p. 180).
Formerly attributed to Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570)
Inscribed at bottom center in pen and brown ink, " [...] P 76"; at lower right in pen and brown ink, "146".
Boussac, Jacques Auguste, 1885- former owner.
Feder, Odette, former owner.
McCrindle, Joseph F., former owner.
Primaticcio, Francesco, 1504-1570, Formerly attributed to.