* Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Il Baciccio Genoa 1639 - 1709 Rome

It seems likely that this drawing belongs to a group of studies made for a pair of canvasses representing Summer and Autumn.  The paintings were formerly in the Palazzo Cambiaso, Genoa, but were sold at auction in 1923, and their current whereabouts are unknown (see R. Enggass, The Paintings of Baciccio: Giovanni Antonio Gaulli, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1964, p. 126).  Several preparatory drawings for the paintings are, however, in Düsseldorf (see D. Graf, Die Handzeichnungen von Guglielmo Cortese und Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Düsseldorf 1976, vol. I, pp. 144-146, cat. nos. 449-454, illustrated vol. II, pp. 272-274, figs. 579-584).  Dating from the 1690s, they depict monumental figures perching on clouds, and show clear stylistic similarites to our study.  Another apparently related drawing was exhibited, La Rome Baroque de Maratti à Piranèse, Paris, Louvre, 1990-1, cat. no. 59.  An alternative suggestion, made by Mary Newcome-Schleier, is that the figures in the present drawing relate to Gaulli's painting of Summer in another series of paintings depicting The Four Seasons, in which each season was painted by a different artist (Spring by Locatelli, Summer by Gaulli, Autumn by Cignani and Winter by an unknown hand; see Il Baciccio, un anno doppo, Ariccia 2001, p. 25, reproduced fig. h, p. 27).