Lot Essay
A variant of this drawing, smaller in size and with numerous differences, is in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, P. Rosenberg, Dieu as a Draughtsman, Master Drawings, 1979, XVII, p. 167, pl. 36b. The lion in the present drawing was replaced by a bull in the Moscow version, probably a reference to the Evangelists, and the angel has disappeared in the latter to leave space for an angel holding an oval frame in which a portrait would have been engraved in the final print. In both drawings the lower left area is covered by a cloth held by angels, in order to leave a space for the text. Both drawings were probably modelli which were shown to the patron; and the present drawing is more likely to be the final one since it is the one that was squared for transfer. Dieu did very few prints and probably asked another artist to execute the print after this drawing.