Salvator Rosa (Arenella, Naples 1615-1673 Rome)

On the basis of its stylistic qualities, Mahoney (op. cit.) suggests a date for the present drawing of circa 1662. The figure, which has been traced through the sheet and worked up separately on recto and verso, may therefore be an early preparatory study for Rosa's etching The Academy of Plato (1662; Bartsch 3). Here the figure on the extreme right of the composition wears very similar headgear and splays his fingers in the same expressive manner as the figure in this drawing, although the position of his legs is altered.