Studies van zwevende putto

120 Three studies of an airborne putto
Verso: Head of a woman, eyes cast down

Inv. no. A* 074

Black chalk with a few touches of white and red chalk on blue paper. Framing line in pencil. Lower right corner irregularly trimmed and made up.
Verso: Red chalk. Framing line in pencil.
230 x 202 mm
Watermark: Anchor within a circle (fragment; cf. Heawood, no. 7)
Inv. 1854: not identified; inv. 1864: F 31 (N. Circignano, “Drie kinderstudies – zwart & wit”); inv. 1920: A* 74 (Correggio)
Provenance: Odescalchi; acquired for the Museum in 1790
(L. 2392)

Identified as by Cortese by Ursula Fischer Pace in 1983 (note on the mount). These must be studies after a plaster or wax model; the same putto reappears – seen from a slightly different angle – in a drawing formerly on the art market with an attribution to F. Fernandi, called l’Imperiali (1679-1741).1
The woman’s head on the verso may be compared with similar studies in Rome (exh. cat. Rome 1979-1980b, nos. 229-236, repr.). The ruled lines in pencil that frame it suggest an intention to trim the sheet around the head.

1 Marcello Aldega and Margot Gordon, exh. cat. Drawings of the Roman Baroque, New York/Rome, January-March 1986, no. 37, repr..