Nicholas Turner confirmed the attribution to Maratta, upon seeing the original, at the time of the Christie's sale in 2004 (see
Provenance). Turner dates the drawing to late in Maratta's career and compares it with the
Study for a Statue of St. Matthew in the British Museum.
1 The British Museum sheet is one of series of studies for statues destined for the niches in the nave of San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome, commissioned by Pope Clement XI.
1. N. Turner, Italian Drawings in the British Museum: Roman Baroque Drawings c.1620 to c.1700, London 1999, vol. II, no. 193