An angel in flight, hands raised in grief

Nancy Ward Neilson kindly confirmed the attribution and pointed out that this is a study for the figure on the right of the window in Morazzone's fresco decorating the cupola of the Chapel of the Flagellation on the Sacro Monte, Varese, M. Gregori, Il Morazzone, exhib. cat., Varese, 1962, no. 13, pl. 39. The cupola is divided into six sections, one with a window and the five others with angels. The central section is occupied by a putto.
The chapel of the Flagellation was erected in 1606, commissioned by the brothers Francesco and Gerolamo Litta and their sister, a nun in the convent on the Sacro Monte. The date of Morazzone's contract for the commission of the decoration of the cupola is unkown, but the artist probably worked on it in 1608-9. The angels of the cupola were finished by September 1608, just before the winter, M. Gregori, op. cit., p. 45. Mina Gregori mentions two other drawings related to the cupola, one in the Museum of the Santuario di Varese and the other in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, C.L. Ragghianti, disegni dell'Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, Bergamo, 1963 , no. 84, pl. XLIII. Three further drawings related to the chapel, specifically decorations of the walls, were exhibited in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Il seicento lombardo, 1973, nos. 82-4.