This intriguing scene showing the beheading of an unknown saint is probably a study for an altarpiece, yet unknown. The drawing technique, combining red chalk for the outlines and fluently applied wash is typical for the second half of the eighteenth century, both South and North of the Alps, as is the dramatic composition which unites a group of muscular male figures set in front of the ruins of a Roman temple or palace. Because of its fragile condition the drawing has been laid down. On the verso a twentieth century hand has noted an attribution in pencil to Martin Johann Schmidt, known as Kremser Schmidt, one of the most significant Austrian painters of the late Baroque. However, drawings by this vibrant artist are typically more luminous and often richly highlighted with white body colour. Before the inscription was discovered the drawing had been attributed on stylistic grounds to Giovanni Battista Marcola, a contemporary of Tiepolo, mostly active in Verona. This attribution seems possible - The Courtauld owns two drawings by Marcola (D.1952.RW.286 and D.1952.RW.336) and this sheet is comparable in quality and style, given the similar ornamental quality of the distribution of wash and the mix of brush and red chalk.

Italian collector (based on inscription hidden on backing sheet); Andrew Smithson Master Drawings (London); purchased there by John Larson, 1981; Gift of John Larson 2014

Watermark: Watermark: Recto, upper left corner: paper is too damaged to see clearly. Backing sheet: Verso, left centre: "IV".

Inscription: Verso (backing sheet): upper left corner, graphite, underlined: “84.”; centre, graphite: “Johann Martin / Schmidt Krems / 1718-1801/ Leporini Seite 277 – / „Memoirenwerk des Feldmarschalls / Daun – ” O; lower centre, graphite, underlined but erased and crossed out: “Tiepolo”; lower centre edge, graphite: “28 x 14 mm”; lower right, graphite: “457”; lower right corner, black ink: “45”. Recto of backing sheet in transmitted light shows writing in brown and red ink and large calligraphic swirls: “[…] oro, o[…] / D’Eoe conchi […] / Di che il suo colto, e il crine adorni […] / Ma fede intera / Pieta, e sincera / Virtu di gaudio il senti colmerani[?] / Attadesi alla Signora Claudia Baroni Guarmani ottima / In attesta [...]”.

Collector's mark: none.