Lot 1176 Dα

The drawing was once part of a sketchbook by Beccafumi, belonging to Coghlan Briscoe, director of the National Gallery of Dublin in the mid-20th century. Rinaldo de Liphart Rathshoff published it in 1935. He believed the male figure on the reverse to be a portrait of Michelangelo. However, this identification was later rejected. Donatello Sanminiatelli dates the sketchbook to before 1512, as Beccafumi used motifs from the sketchbook in later works. This study of the male legs closely relates to a painting for the church of San Francesco in Siena (now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena). A similar study exists in the British Museum, London.