Lot Essay
Popham first attributed this drawing to Vanni, the Sienese master who was influenced by Barocci. The traditional attribution is understandable as the types in the drawing with their broad faces and elegant hands recall Barocci, and the domestic intimacy of the scene is reminiscent of pictures such as the Madonna del Gatto in The National Gallery, London. The smooth, modulated handling of chalk in this drawing is similar to a sheet of studies of three monks in the Uffizi which is datable circa 1601-2, P.A. Riedl, Disegni dei Barocceschi Senesi, Florence, 1976, no. 34, fig. 35