Francesco Albani (Bologna 1578-1660)

This luminous sheet closely resembles the Toilet of Venus, frescoed by Albani at Palazzo Giustiniani at Bassano (Rome) and compares stylistically with two drawings of mythological subject and similar technique at Chatsworth (Diana and her nymphs) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Diana bathing; M. Jaffé, The Devonshire Collection of Italian Drawings. Bolognese and Emilian Schools, London 1994, no. 439; and J. Bean, 17th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1979, no. 1). The wash technique and dry pen work are characteristic of Albani, who usually created random loops of drapery before defining their solidity with wash, as seen here and in the Chatsworth drawing.