An elaborate drawing of the dead Christ, laid out on drapery, with a mourning figure (probably St Mary Magdelene) at his feet. On the right, a faint sketch in chalk of another woman. 

Popham (in P&W): If it is not actually a study for, it at any rate shows a very close stylistic resemblance to the painting in the Galleria Estense in Modena of the Dead Christ between Justice and Charity, though with the foreshortened body of Christ in the opposite direction. A drawing in the Uffizi (inv. 2001) shows the body of Christ in almost the same position as in the painting, but with mourning Maries alongside and without the allegorical figures. 

Exhibited Lelio Orsi, Reggio 1950, no. 32. 

The drawing is one of many by Orsi (others include RCIN 904791 and 910900) that bear on the verso a large roman numeral drawn with the brush, followed by an unidentified paraph or calligraphic mark of ownership. This has been interpreted by F. Kossoff (in Italian Drawings from the Ashmolean Museum, Wildenstein Gallery, London, 1970, no. 31) as the mark of the Gonzaga of Novellara, in whose collection an inventory of 1728 listed ‘cento pezzi di disegno in grande’ by Orsi.