Description: Traditionally attributed to Raphael, in 1917 this drawing was connected with Fra Bartolomeo and his workshop by Sirén, who noted that most of the drawings in the group of drawings he attributed to the workshop of Fra Bartolommeo were intended as preparations for backgrounds in various paintings.
In 1990 Charles S. Ellis discovered that our drawing is preparatory to a miniature by an unknown artist in the Vatican Library representing the Holy Family, that the landscape background occurs in the "Annunciation" in the Duomo, Volterra by Fra Bartolommeo and Mariotto Albertinelli and, moreover, that it was strongly related to the design of parts of two paintings by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio or by his studio: "The Nativity with Saints" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and "The Adoration of the Shepherds" in Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana.
Ellis further discovered that certain passages of the drawing are clearly not by the hand of Fra Bartolommeo: the heavy parallel lines of the arch and entablature at upper right and of the cornice at centre as well as the same heavy strokes at lower left and the two high trees at the left seem to be additions, supposedly made by the miniaturist, since the additions correspond very closely with the miniature.
The background landscape and remaining parts of the drawing are characteristic with Fra Bartolommeo's hand. The close relationship between our drawing and the background of the dated Volterra "Annunciation" suggests that the drawing was executed at about the same time in 1496 or 1497 [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. 1083]

Landskap med ruiner och befäst stad