Roman or Bolognese School, Late 16th Century

This drawing squared for transfer must represent Saint John and is likely preparatory for a Crucifixion scene. It can be compared to the expansive volumes and figural types of Bartolomeo Cesi, Baldassarre Croce, Scipione Pulzone and other artists working in Rome in the Late Cinquecento. The English diarist John Evelyn's rare annotation of ownership at left can be found, in the same script, on a copy of Giacomo Carissimi's motets which the English writer bought in Rome in 1645 (British Library, MS 78416C). His signature 'Evelynus Romae' appears on an early drawing by Carlo Maratti he commissioned in 1645 (see S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, 'Carlo Maratti 1640-1650', Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 42, 2015, pp. 248-49, fig. 2).