Hebe and Mercury conferring youth on the followers of Mercury

One of a group of drawings attributed to Perino's assistant Domenico Rietti, lo Zaga (active 1543-1581). All the drawings are of mythological subjects and are drawn in a chiaroscuro technique. The attribution to Rietti was based upon the similarity between the drawings and frescoes believed to be by him in the Castel Sant' Angelo painted for Pope Paul III Farnese. Related drawings are in the Courtauld Institute, at Edinburgh, at Munich and elsewhere, Gli Affreschi di Paolo III a Castel Sant' Angelo 1543-1548, Rome, 1981, II, nos. 134-144, illustrated. Another was offered at Christie's New York, 14 January 1986, lot 99.