A drapery around the torso of a running figure (recto); Study of a male torso (verso)

Skilfully modulated with two colours of wash and heightened with white, this isolated drapery study is of great dynamic quality. Its authorship remains somewhat ambiguous, but the style appears to point to an artist working in the Friuli region in the first half of the 16th Century. It has been suggested that the artist could have been from Pordenone's circle, and the style may be compared to that of his pupil Pomponio Amalteo in particular. Similarly draped figures can be found, for example, in his Adoration of the Magi in the S. Maria dei Battuti, San Vito al Tagliamento (L. Menegazzi, Amalteo, exhib., cat., Pordenone, Museo Civico, 1980, fig. 2) and in his study for the Supper at Emmaus, also on blue paper, in the Royal Collection (inv. RCIN 904784; see C. Cohen, 'Drawings by Pomponio Amalteo', Master Drawings, XI, 1973, no. 3, pl. 18).