Lot Essay
In a letter dated 13 February 1997 Stella Rudolph kindly suggested the attribution and connected the drawing to another of the same subject in the Düsseldorf Kunstmuseum, D. Graf, Die Handzeichnungen des Giuseppe Passeri, Düsseldorf, 1995, no. 612, fig. 977. The Düsseldorf drawing is inscribed 'Abbte Francesco Patrizi, Castelgiuliano' and is probably a study, along with the present sheet, for a picture executed for Castelgiuliano, the country house owned by the Patrizi family, one of Passeri's most important patrons. Another related drawing is in the Istituto nazionale per la grafica, Rome (FC 124898).