Two male nudes, holding a dish above their heads

This drawing and the one in the following lot come from an album of at least 61 drawings which was dispersed in the early 1920s by the London art dealer Meatyard. All sheets from the album bear vertical lines, as in a ledger, indicating the volume was an account book. The sheets are inscribed with an ink number in the upper edge, the highest number being '61' (M. Magrini, 'Francesco Fontebasso - I Disegni', Saggi e Memorie, XVII, 1990, no. 143, fig. 164). Meatyard sold the drawings as by Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734), but they were recognised as Fontebasso by James Byam Shaw in 1954 (J. Byam Shaw, ' The Drawings of Francesco Fontebasso', Arte Veneta, MCMLIV, no. 70, p. 323, note 1). Most of the drawings from the album show studies of single figures, sometimes inspired by the Antique, and they are not connected with any of the artist's paintings. Comparable drawings from the same album are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. 61.56.2), the British Museum, London (Inv. 1920,0929.1, 1920,0929.3 and 1920,0929.2) and the Princeton University Art Museum (Inv. 1948-780, 81, 82 and 83).