The handling of this drawing, especially the wash, is comparable to that of a group of Ricci stage designs, G.M. Pilo, Marco Ricci, exhib. cat., Palazzo Sturm, Bassano del Grappa, 1963, nos. 160-89, illustrated. Other Ricci stage designs are at Windsor, A. Blunt and E. Croft-Murray, Venetian Drawings of the XVII & XVIII Centuries in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, London, 1957, nos. 160-210, illustrated. The Windsor designs were dated by Blunt and Croft-Murray to Ricci's stay in England, from 1710 to 1717, or even slightly earlier.
The mount of the present drawing suggests that it was part of an album of studies by Ricci, inscribed 'Marci Ricci Bellunensis Pictoris Eximii Schedae', owned by A.M. Zanetti and subsequently in the Cernazai and Dal Zotto Collections. The album was broken up and sold in the Geiger sale in 1920. Three drawings from the group were sold in these Rooms, 29 November 1977, lots 85-6 and 88, illustrated.