Pietro Testa (Lucca 1611-1650 Rome)

The virtuosic and free pen work in this drawing is typical of the artist and it may be compared to a drawing of Narcissus at the Pool, datable to circa 1631-7, in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (Inv. D 4991) and to The Sacrifice of Isaac datable circa 1642 in the Kupferstichkabinett, Kunsthalle Bremen (Inv. 1959/32; E. Cropper et al., in Pietro Testa: 1612-1650: Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and elsewhere, 1988, no. 20 and fig. 71a). The subject of an amorous Pan and Venus with putti also appears in an etching given to Testa and/or Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666) (G. Fusconi and A. Canevari, Pietro Testa e la nemica fortuna: Un artista filoso (1612-1650) tra Lucca e Roma, Rome, 2014, p. 115, fig. 3).