An offset of a copy of Correggio’s Coronation of the Virgin in the apse of San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma. Correggio’s fresco in the dome was painted between 1520 and 1524; in 1587 the apse was demolished for renovation and a copy of Correggio’s Coronation was commissioned from the Bolognese painter Cesare Aretusi (fl. 1586 -1612). A fragment of the original fresco with the Virgin and Christ is now in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma (inv. 1450) and three fragments with angels are in the National Gallery, London.

This drawing is a counterproof of a drawing by Federico Zuccaro now in New York (Private Collection; formerly with Jean-Luc Baroni, exh. New York and London 2004, no, 4). As noted by Popham (Popham and Wilde, no. 253), by the time Federico was in Parma in 1607-8, the fresco had already been replaced by Aretusi’s copy.

Federico admired Correggio’s works and produced a number of similar drawn copies of his paintings in Parma, Reggio and Modena; there are six offsets in the Royal Collection, the others being RCINs 990744, 990743, 900729, 901729, 903512. These are probably identical with the 'Disegni di lapis rosso, e nero, calchi dal Coreggi no. 6' in the inventory of the collection of Francesco Raspantino (see R. Spear, Domenichino, 1982, p. 344).