Study sheet with figures for "Diana und Acteon", pen and brown ink, red chalk, on laid paper, numbered in pen and brown ink "90", 15 x 20 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection Carlo Prayer (1826-1900), Milan, Lugt 2044;
Private collection, Italy.

The present study is related to the painting „Diana und Actaeon“ in the Devonshire Collection, Christ Church in Oxford (Inv. Nr. JBS 152). The painting in Oxford is one of several versions of the theme which Carlo Maratta executed. It was once attributed to Maratta and Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675) by Stella Rudolph, but is currently catalogued as “Maratta workshop” in the collection. The sketch seems to have been made in direct preparation for the version in Oxford; it reproduces the composition and the grouping of the protagonists in essential parts; only the nymphs bathing in the river behind Diana as well as the landscape background in the painting, which was presumably executed by Dughet, are still missing in the present study. According to the opinion of Prof. Francesco Petrucci, the drawing can be attributed both technically and stylistically to Carlo Maratta and could have been created in the 1660s.

We are grateful to Prof. Francesco Petrucci for the scientific support.