Late compositional study for Carpaccio's panel painting of ca. 1500-1512.
Among the foremost painters of fifteenth-century Venice, Carpaccio is notable for the elaborate urban or landscape settings of his compositions. In the foreground of this drawing, made in preparation for a painting now in the Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon, the Virgin Mary is sitting on the ground with the Christ child and John the Baptist. At her sides are two adoring female saints: Elizabeth, the mother of St. John, and Mary Magdalene, on the right with an open book on her lap. The somewhat bizarre landscape provides a setting for hermit saints on the rock arch and throughout the background. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"
Watermark: Circle with balance inside, surmounted by six-pointed star.
Dubini, Francesco, 1848-1932, former owner.
Rasini, Giovanni, 1892-1952, former owner.
Rasini, Cesare, 1920-1993, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 57.
Selected references: Morassi 1937, 25; Tietze and Tietze- Conrat 1944, no. 624; Arslan 1952, 109; Laclotte 1956, 231n3; Fiocco 1958, 33; Lauts 1962, no. 35; Pignatti 1963, 51; Venice 1963, no. 16; Muraro 1966, 69, 109; Zampetti 1966, 76; Cancogni and Perocco 1967, under no. 22; Pignatti 1972, no. 24; Muraro 1977, 59-60; Sgarbi 1994, 162; White 1994, no. 34; London 1998a, no. 1; New York 2002-3, no. 1; New York 2006, no. 8; New York and Williamstown 2017-18, 39, and no. 34.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 34, repr.
The Thaw Collection : Master Drawings and Oil Sketches : Acquisitions since 1994. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 2002, no. 1, repr.
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 8, p. 20-21.