The iconography of the Madonna of the Pillar, which is associated with a vision accorded to Saint James's, is more common in Spain than in Italy. The present drawing was presumably intended for an altarpiece or a processional standard for a confraternity. The inscriptions on the verso appear to certify the drawing, which was opribably added to a legal contract for a picture. Although such contracts seldom survive, they are frequently referred to in contracts, where artists are commissioned to paint works 'as appears in the drawing'! An example of a contract drawing for a processional standard agreed on the verso by the confraternity by Bellini is in the Metropolitan, J. Bear, 15th and 16th Century Italian drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, no. 31, illustrated