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DESCRIPTION:
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A preparatory drawing for the painting now in the National Gallery, London.
A number of other studies for this painting are known, in the Louvre, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, the Pallazo Rosso in Genoa and in a private collection in Sacramento, attesting to the artist's rigorous method of preparation. These three follow the painting design much more closely, which suggests that our drawing was the first of the surviving designs. The technique is typical of Orsi in the manner of the nervous crosshatching and the distinctive facial types. Although the general disposition of the two figures is similar to the painting, there are numerous differences in the details of costume, the positions of the limbs and the angles of the heads. The third figure in the painting, to the left of Christ, is not included. The origin of the painting's commission is obscure but, according to Monducci and Pirondi, the strong northern influence in the costume, recalling prints by Peter Coeck, suggests a date after 1570. Earlier authors such as Freedberg, Salvini and Chiodi have suggested the mid 1560s as the likely date of the painting. We are grateful to Mr. Massimo Pirondini for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph, and who will be including our drawing in his next publication on Lelio Orsi.
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