The present drawing is for a picture in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (P. Barocchi, Vasari pittore, Milan, 1964, fig. W), commissioned by Pope Paul V for the chapel of Saint Peter in the Torre Pia in the Vatican. There are only differences in detail between the drawing and the picture. The picture and the drawing differ in shape, the former being rectangular, and the kneeling Saint in the latter is older. The commission, which included the decoration of two more chapels dedicated to Saint Michael and Saint Steven, was executed by Vasari and Zucchi in 1570 and 1571. The first chapel to be finished was that of Saint Peter. It was consecrated on 30 April 1571 and, in a letter written to Lorenzo de' Medici four days later, Vasari calls it 'la meglio cosa che io facessi mai', K. and H.W. Frey, Der literartische Nachlass Giorgio Vasaris, Munich, 1930, II, p. 583. The drawing was executed by Vasari on two sheets which is, according to Florian Härb, a typical feature of Vasari's late drawings: other examples of this practice are found in a drawing in the Louvre for the altarpiece of the chapel of Saint Michael in the Vatican (C. Monbeig-Goguel, Inventaire général des dessins italiens: Vasari et son temps, Paris, 1972, no. 199, illustrated) and in two others at Chatsworth for the same chapel, M. Jaffé, The Devonshire Collection of Italian Drawings, Tuscan and Umbrian Schools, London, 1994, nos. 11-2, illustrated.
Florian Härb also points out that a copy of the present drawing is in the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. 1922.645).
Florian Härb kindly confirmed the attribution and provided the information to catalogue this drawing.