Circle of Pietro Buonaccorsi, called Perino del Vaga

This drawing can be associated with two designs, both by the same hand, for similarly fantastical vessels.  The first, possibly more similar, sheet is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. no. 50.605.30), while the second is in in the Musée de Rennes (inv. no.794.1.2510), where it is kept as Polidoro.  Like the present sheet, the one in New York bears the mark of Pierre-Jean Mariette.  Furthermore, the attribution to Polidoro found in the lower left corner of this drawing, presumably inscribed there by Mariette, appears to match that in the same position on the Rennes sheet, suggesting that the latter also once belonged to the great French collector.  Each sheet contains ornamental groups of three heraldic crescents, which it has been suggested refer to the emblem of the Florentine Strozzi family.  They may be identified even more specifically with Leone Strozzi (1515-1554), Knight of Malta, captain for the celebrated sea hero Andrea Doria, and possibly one of Perino's patrons.  After having defeated the Turks at Corfu, Leone set out for Florence in an attempt to free his father from Cosimo I's imprisonment, a voyage on which Perino may have accompanied him.  He paused in Rome in 1538, and it is not unlikely that these designs were produced for the festivites in honour of his victory.