School of Madrid, 17th Century

Sale, London, Christie's, 12 December 1996, lot 44,
where purchased by the present owner,
Apelles Collection (mark not in Lugt, verso)

This grand study, executed in red chalk, illustrating the Feast of Belshazzar, is squared for transfer in red chalk.  The squaring indicates it is a working drawing for either a painting or fresco but it has not been possible to associate it with any surviving composition.  Dr. Zahira Véliz, former curator of the Apelles Collection, suggests that it is by an artist active in the Madrid School in the seventeenth century, possibly working closely with Juan de Frias y Escalante (see lots 85 and 90 for examples of drawings by this artist).