Attributed to Domenico Cresti, Il Passignano (Passignano 1559-1638 Florence)

This complex composition does not, as has been suggested in the past, represent the siege of a city, but rather a religious festival. A procession of worshippers passes through the tower at the centre of the drawing, followed by two men carrying a shrine or statue and bishops. A joyous crowd watches the scene from two fanciful galleys, from smaller boats and from the shore and a tower at right, while a salute is fired at left to mark the occasion. A more precise identification of the subject might help with the attribution of the sheet, which has remained elusive. The name of to Domenico Cresti, a Florentine artist active for several years in Venice in the first half of his career, has been suggested on the basis of a comparison with drawings such as a battle scene at the Albertina (inv. 736; see V. Birke and J. Kertész, Die italienischen Zeichnungen der Albertina, I, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 1992, pp. 386-387, ill.).