The present drawing was used for the executioner to the left of Saint James condemned to Martyrdom (fig. 1) in the collection of the Marchese Silvestro Loffredo Gutkowski, Syracuse, A. Clark, op. cit., no. 171, fig. 159. The altarpiece was painted in 1752 for the Chiesa delle Anime del Purgatorio, Syracuse, commissioned by Giacomo Loffredo whose uncle, a wealthy merchant, from 1720 onwards decided to refurbish the church.
Another drawing for the same figure is in an English private collection, A. Clark, op. cit., no. D70, fig. 161.