The present drawing was probably commissioned by Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti, whose coat-of-arms are sketched under the laid down paper. Magalotti, a Florentine, was the brother-in-law of Pope Urban VIII's brother. He was vice-legate in Bologna serving under Cardinal Maffeo Barberini and, when the latter was elected Pope in 1623 as Urban VIII, became Secretary of the Correspondence with the Princes. In 1628 Magalotti was named Legate in Ferrara and died there in 1637.
The finished design for the coat-of-arms, formerly laid down on the present drawing, is now in the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (fig. 1), S. Jacob, Italienische Zeichnungen der Kunstbibliothek Berlin, Berlin, 1975, no. 453, illustrated. Dr. Jörg Merz points out that the present composition derives from the title-page by Agostino Carracci for Aldo Mannucci's Vita di Cosimo de' Medici, published in 1586 (illustrated Bartsch, XXXIX, p. 282) and that a copy of the present drawing is in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem (I. 20).
Another Cortona drawing, similar in composition and shape to the present one, showing the arms of Taddeo Barberini, is at Chatsworth, M. Jaffé, The Devonshire Collection of Italian Drawings, Roman and Neapolitan Schools, London, 1994, no. 177, illustrated. The Chatsworth drawing was used for a small tapestry woven by Giacomo della Riviera circa 1632 on a cartoon by Ubaldini after Cortona's design.
We are grateful to Dr. Jörg Merz for his help in cataloguing this drawing.