Lot Essay
Professor Roger Rearick has kindly confirmed the attribution, and suggest a date of around 1582-3. A copy of this drawing, which Rearick attributes to Paolo's brother Benedetto, is in the Louvre, R. Cocke, Veronese's Drawings, London, 1984, p. 126, fig. 20 (as School of Veronese). Benedetto copied exclusively his brother's drawings. The Louvre drawing betrays the hand of a copyist in the misunderstanding of some details in the present study, such as the highlights on the cross of Saint Francis. The assured handling of the highlights and the atmospheric landscapes of chiaroscuro drawings such as the Chatsworth Supper at Emmaus and the Albertina Allegory of Victory are comparable to those of the present drawing, Cocke, op. cit., pls. 35 and 40. Professor Richard Cocke does not accept the attribution to Veronese