Luigi Garzi

At one time attributed to Giovanni Lanfranco (as per the old inscription), this drawing was reattributed to Charles Mellin by Philippe Malgouyres, who published it as a study for Mellin's frescoes in the chapel of the Royal Palace in Naples. Recently, however, Guendolina Serafinelli -- following suggestions by Ursula Fisher Pace and Andreas Raub -- connected it to frescoes painted by Luigi Garzi in the Ospedale delle Donne, Rome, in 1678-79 (see Serafinelli, “Giovanni Maria Mariani e Luigi Garzi per l'Ospedale delle Donne ad Sancta Sanctorum,” in Philine Helas and Patrizia Tosini, eds., Tra Campidoglio e Curia: l'Ospedale del SS. Salvatore ad Sancta Sanctorum tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna (Milan, 2017), 149-64.) Although slightly atypical among Garzi's drawings, a point also noted by Francesco Grisolia (“Luigi Garzi, disegnatore romano: dagli esordi alla maturità (1660-1690),” in Grisolia and Serafinelli, eds., Luigi Garzi 1638-1721. Pittore romano (Milan, 2018), 214), the drawing is clearly an early sketch for Garzi's Assumption, painted on the arch above the altar of the Holy Crucifix in the Ospedale delle Donne.