A black chalk drawing of the Dead Christ with separate drawings of his neck, shoulder and loin-cloth. Inscribed at lower right: ‘Di M A Buona Rota’. On the verso, William Gibson’s attribution and price code in pen and ink: ‘M Angilo 1.4’.

This drawing is a copy after Girolamo Sciciolante’s altarpiece of the Pietà, now in Poznan, Muzeum Narodowe, dated c. 1542-44. The painting was commissioned by a member of the Muti-Papazzurri family for their chapel in the Church of Santi Apostoli in Rome. Born in Sermoneta in 1521, Siciolante moved to Rome in the early 1540s, where he became a successful painter. He learned his drawing technique from his master Perino del Vaga and from the 1560s he came under the influence of more Michelangelesque forms.

This sheet was originally attributed to Girolamo Siciolante by Popham and Wilde (P&W no. 928). However, as noted by John Hunter (Master Drawings 1988, p. 77), the main study is mechanically copied from the painting and its details are duplicated exactly in form, pose and shading. Hunter also argued that the peripheral studies, showing alternative forms for the drapery and the bared neck of Christ, are possibly derivative from the same figure.

Another drawing after the same altarpiece is the Royal Collection (RCIN 990456).

The clipped top corners and William Gibson’s inscription on the verso indicate that the drawing has probably been in the Royal Collection since the reign of Charles II. The sheet was later inventoried in the early 19^th century as by Michelangelo.