Giuseppe Cesari, Il Cavaliere d'Arpino (Rome 1568-1640)

A study for a picture in the Cappella Aldobrandini, S. Maria in Via, Rome. Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini commissioned Arpino to undertake this picture and the frescoes in the chapel which according to Luisa Mortari he completed between 1 August 1594 and 13 February 1596 (H. Röttgen, exhib. cat., 1973, no. 102).
The figures in the chapel can be compared to those in Arpino's Presentation in the Temple, dated 1597, and other pictures by him dated after 1600.
Two copies of this drawing exist with minor differences, one in the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf (inv. no. FP321) and another in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (inv. no. 24404). The sheet in Düsseldorf corresponds stylistically with a group of drawings attributed to Muzio Cesari, Giuseppe's older brother.