A pen and ink drawing of Alexander the Great refusing a drink of water in preparation for a fresco in Palazzo Mattei, Rome.

This drawing is probably the modello for the one of the octagonal ceiling frescoes in the stanza with the Storie di Alessandro in Palazzo Mattei (now Mattei Caetani) in via delle Botteghe Oscure in Rome. It represents a story described in Plutarch’s Life of Alexander. In order to strengthen the spirits of his soldiers suffering from thirst in the desert, Alexander refuses to drink any water until it was available for everyone. A copy is in the Louvre (Inv. 11762).

According to Giorgio Vasari, Taddeo painted the ceiling frescoes (sfondati) of the Mattei palace and delegated some of them to his brother Federico. In the first stanza, Taddeo executed the Triumph of Bacchus and in other two stanze he illustrated scenes from the Life of Alexander the Great. It is probable that the frescoes were executed in 1560, the year of the wedding of Alessandro’s son Ciriaco Mattei and presumably of the birth of his first grandson, also named Alessandro.

Popham discussed it as a copy.