Christ handing the keys of the church to Saint Peter

In his native Florence, Balducci was involved in the decoration of Santa Maria Novella, but the present drawing must be related to his work for a much smaller Florentine church, the Oratorio dei Pretoni (or Oratorio di Gesu Pellegrino). Although the fresco in the chapel of the same subject (Fig. 1) differs in composition as well as in format, there are enough similarities to relate the two works and consider the drawing an early sketch for the final composition. A commission of Cardinal Alessandro de’ Medici on which Balducci worked from 1588 until 1590, the cycle for the chapel has been called ‘one of his finest works’, possessing the ‘simple devotional quality typical of Florentine art of this period’ (G. Toscano in The Dictionary of Art, III, London, 1996, p. 101).

As attested by the inscription below, the drawing belonged to the British painter Sir James Thornhill, who believed it to be by the older Florentine artist Bernardino Poccetti (1548-1612).