Attributed to Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741)

The draughtsmanship, particularly the heads drawn with two lines crossing the centre and the use of wash in very regular strokes along the outlines of the figures, is close to that of some of Pellegrini's drawings in Düsseldorf, A. Bettagno, Disegni e dipinti di Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, exhib. cat., Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 1959, nos. 18-9, 51, illustrated. Richard Krautheimer noted that the present sheet was close in style and composition to a drawing of the same subject in Janos Scholz's collection, now attributed to Antonio Molinari by Jacob Bean and Catherine Monbeig-Goguel. George Knox, in a letter dated 22 November 1980, also gave the present sheet to Molinari.