This previously unidentified drawing is from a group of studies drawn circa 1588 for a series of 52 engravings of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Although the drawings were drawn at around the same time the prints were issued in three stages by Robert de Baudous, who may well have also been the engraver: the first 20 were engraved in 1589 (including that related to the present drawing), and another 20 appeared the following year and the remainder were published in 1615. Only seven other drawings are known for this series: Mercury and Argus at Besançon, Jupiter and Phoebus at Leiden, Cadmus and Delphi, Cadmus' Companions killed by the Dragon, Cadmus slaying the Dragon and Apollo and Leucothea at Bremen, Callisto's pregnancy revealed to Diana at Danzig (E.K.J. Reznicek, Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius, Utrecht, 1961, nos. K99-104 and K100a, figs. 199-24 and 451) and the Fall of Phaeton sold in these Rooms, 25 November 1992, lot 519, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The story of the present drawing is taken from Book I of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Jupiter came to earth to punish mankind for their wickedness. He visited Arcadia where Lycaon was the King, and revealed himself as a God and the people payed homage to him. Lycaon laughed at the piety of his subjects, and to test the divinity of Jupiter he fed him human flesh at his table. Jupiter was so enraged at this act that he transformed him into a wolf and destroyed his palace