The drawing comes from one of the four pages in the album bearing the inscription by Miss Moore 'Sir Harry Englefield's'; all four drawings seem to date from Fuseli's Roman years, 1770-72. For Englefield see lot ...

This is a version, slightly looser in handling, of a larger drawing in the Roman Album, dated by Schiff to c. 1777 (S. 521; British Museum 1885-3-14-211). It seems to be based in form, if not in its despairing mood, on two figures from Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, Amon and Roboam. Fuseli used a simlar pose in his drawing of The Death of Cains Gracchus, dated by Schiff to c. 1776 (S. 403; Roman Album, British Museum 1885-3-14-226)