Lot Essay
A closely comparable drawing which shows a man on a drinking horse, is in the Louvre (inv. 373; see F. Viatte, Musée du Louvre. Cabinet des dessins. Inventaire général des dessins italiens, II, Dessins de Stefano della Bella, Paris, 1974, no. 65). That drawing might have been used for an etching showing a similar horse, also drinking and in a landscape, from the series Diverses figures et griffonnemens from circa 1646 (A. de Vesme and P.D. Massar, Stefano della Bella. Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1971, no. 477). Two further prints with horsemen were published in the series Diversi capricci from circa 1647 (ibid., nos. 132-33).