The Judgement of Solomon

This vibrant drawing is a study for a picture sold at Dorotheum, Vienna, 10-12 October 1929, lot 141 (present whereabouts unknown). This painting follows the drawing closely overall, but with differences: the man at upper left is absent and the position of the man at far right has been altered. Another drawing by Palma showing the same subject, from the collection of Jonathan Richardson Sr., is now in the National Galleries of Scotland (see The Age of Titian. Venetian Renaissance Art from Scottish Collections, exhib. cat., Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 2004, no. 113, ill.) and a further sheet of the subject is in the Moravská Galerie in Brno (see H. Kusáková-Knozová, Italská renesanční a barokní kresba, ze sbírek Moravské galerie, Brno, 1969, no. 88).
We are grateful to Stefania Mason Rinaldi for her assistance in cataloguing this drawing and for confirming the attribution.