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Description: No watermark. Numbered at lower left in pen and brown ink: 28 ; inscribed in pen and brown ink at lower centre: "Corregio". The mount has the following inscription by Richard Ford: "original study of San Placido in the Picture of Parma of the hands of the saint - original".

Provenance: Sir Joshua Reynolds (L 2364) ;  Richard Ford (L 2209) ; Unidentified collectors mark "b" (red) ; C.R. Rudolf (L 2811a). : Acquired at Christie´s 30 March 1976, lot 71.

There is no means of telling whether this sheet, which in the collection of Richard Ford (1796-1858) was attributed to Correggio, likewise featured as a work by him when it belonged to Reynolds. When auctioned on 26 May 1794, however, the latter´s collection did contain 51 drawings ascribed to his master.

It has been suggested (Christie´s catalogue) that the drawing might represent a violinist and hands. This may seem plausible at first sight but closer study shows that the attitude of the figure is not that of a violinist in those days; and as the hand in the studies is a right hand, it cannot represent a violinist´s hold on the neck of his instrument.

The attribution to Pittoni rests on strong similarities with studies by him of both figures and hands. The pathetic attitude of the figure recurs in serval paintings from Pittoni. Alice Binion has found that it comes closest to the high priest in the "Circumcision" at the Accademia in Venice, which was formerly in the Convento di S. Maria di Servi and dates roughly between 1720 and 1730. The studies of a hand were quite possibly used for the devotional picture representing "St. Anthony and the Christchild." Pittoni used his drawings over and over again, sometimes across great intervals of time.

This figure has several parallels in the graphic material published by Palluchini: "Study of seated figures" and "Study of three warriors". The same applies to the hand studies: There, as in our sheet, one finds that Pittoni repeats the same hand several times with very little variation. Another similarity is the use of red chalk for all these studies. [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. 208]

Figur- och handstudier