Lot Essay
According to a note by Brian Sewell on the mount, Anthony Blunt had suggested an attribution to Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) for the present drawing. Jörg Merz, for whose assistance we are grateful, has rejected this attribution and instead suggested an attribution to one of the artist's pupils, Pietro Paolo Baldini (1614-1684) (for his drawings see U.V. Fischer Pace, 'Drawings by Pietro Paolo Baldini', Master Drawings, XXIX, 1991, no. 1, pp. 3-29). More recently an alternative attribution to Francois Perrier (1590-1650) has been suggested.