A black chalk drawing of Anton Francesco Doni, seated at the harpsichord, and a man standing on the right. Inscribed in pen lower right: ‘Giorgion’.

In 1563, Federico travelled to Venice to complete the decoration of the Grimani chapel in San Francesco della Vigna, after the death of Battista Franco in 1561. At that time Taddeo was occupied with commissions in Rome and Caprarola, and Federico thus had the opportunity to embark on his first solo project. By 1564, Federico had completed the frescoes, but he was able to remain in Northern Italy until July 1565. According to Vasari, Federico painted a loggia in a villa between Monselice and Chioggia. It is probably during this period that Federico encountered the Florentine literate Anton Francesco Doni (1513–1574) and executed this vivid and spontaneous drawing. A counterproof is in the Louvre (Inv. 4576), inscribed and dated in Federico’s hand: ‘Ant. Fran. Donni in Arquà 1564’.

Doni was associated with the Accademia dei Pellegrini in Padua and aspired to dedicate a monument to the memory of Italian poet Petrarch in Arquà (now Arquà Petrarca). By 1567, he was retired and living in Monselice. Doni was an important figure in intellectual circles, famous for his popular and satirical writing. In a letter to the bishop of Florence, Antonio Altoviti, dated 1564, Doni acclaimed Federico as a ‘new Raphael’ and praised his frescoes in the Grimani Chapel.

Federico portrays the scholar, seated at the harpsichord, in the presence of a gentleman, probably a fellow academic. This small drawing was probably part of a series of drawings which Federico made during his travel in Venice and the Veneto to record images of famous painters, such as Tintoretto and Veronese, as well as sketches from life. Other drawings with a similar format are in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow (Inv. 6195), Chatsworth (inv. 908), Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett, inv. 20853) and Paris (Louvre, inv. RF 99).

The inscription probably refers to the Venetian painter Giorgione and it is presumably by a later collector who erroneously associated the free style of the present drawing to the Venetian painter.