Domenico Zampieri, called Domenichino

As Richard Spear observed (see Literature), this fascinating sheet can be dated to the brief pontificate of Pope Gregory XV (Ludovisi, 1621-1623), as the design incorporates the papal tiara surmounting the Ludovisi arms; the actual project to which it relates remains, however, unidentified. A number of architectural projects are known to have been envisaged during these years, but most of them, including the Ludovisi Villa in Rome, were either never actually realized before the pontiff's untimely death, or have subsequently been destroyed.  

Stylistically, Spear noted close parallels with preliminary studies by Domenichino, now at Windsor, for the stucco decorations of the choir in the Roman church of Sant'Andrea della Valle,¹ drawings which date to 1622-27. The Windsor studies are, however, executed only in pen and ink and brown wash, and indeed the present sheet is the only known study by Domenichino that is enriched with colored wash, suggesting that it was made as a kind of presentation drawing. Interestingly, it also includes the image of a Pope and two prelates in one of the riquadri, figures that may well represent Gregory XV, with the Cardinal nepote Ludovico Ludovisi kneeling in front of him.

^1. Windsor Castle, Royal Collection, RCIN 901552 and 910934; see Spear, op. cit., p. 254, under no. 88 xviii, figs. 267-268