The Virgin and Child with a Bishop Saint (recto); The Adoration of the Shepherds (verso, by a different hand)

Relatively few drawings by Lorenzo Sabatini are known, and his oeuvre as a draughtsman still remains little studied. This large sheet, squared to be transferred on a larger scale, may have served as a study for an altarpiece. Although the figure of the Saint below the Virgin and Child does not have specific attributes, he has traditionally been identified as Saint Petronius, the patron saint of Sabatini’s native Bologna.

On the verso of the sheet is a drawing of an Adoration of the Shepherds by another artist, possibly a member of Sabatini’s workshop.