Donato Creti (Cremona 1671-1749 Bologna)

Perhaps related to Creti's painting of the same subject from the beginning of his career (R. Roli, Donato Creti, Milan, 1967, p. 91, no. 51, fig. 4). A drawing of the same subject is at the Prado (M.B. Mena Marués, Museo del Prado: catálogo de dibujos, VII, dibujos Italianos del siglo XVIII y del siglo XIX, Madrid, 1990, pp. 57, 263, F.D. 472, fig. 81), and another was sold at Christie's, London, 10 December 1991, lot 156. The Prado drawing is a compositional study like the present one, with some differences, including a lion at the feet of the saint and the omission of the cherub behind the angel. The sheet sold at Christie's in December 1991 has three studies of the kneeling saint and two subsidiary studies of the saint's head.