A drawing of Christ leaning forward, his head bent to receive the sacrament of Baptism. Inscribed in ink, lower left, in an old hand, Bassano. The drawing is apparently connected to the figure of Christ in the painting of the Baptism of Christ, c.1590, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. 2012.99), a late work by Jacopo Bassano, though here the head of Christ is in profile. In both painting and drawing the right hand of Christ is hidden by robes held by an angel, here rendered as lines at lower left.

The attribution of the drawing and its relationship to the New York painting are uncertain. The drawing was attributed by D. von Hadeln (Venezianische Zeichnungen der Spätrenaissance, 1926, pl. 85) to Jacopo’s son Francesco, and this was accepted by the Tietzes (The Drawings of the Venetian Painters, 1944, no. 105). But the drawing is not a simple copy after Jacopo’s painting, and if by Francesco it would seem to be a study for a different work, inspired by his father’s painting. J. Wilde (note on old mount) suggested instead ‘v. late Bordone’, which if correct would render the link with the New York painting accidental.