The Triumph of David

Professor Dr Jörg Merz has kindly confirmed the attribution to Cortona in a communication dated 14 May 2007, having studied the drawing in the original in 2003. The drawing was made in preparation for Cortona's lost fresco in the Villa del Pigneto Sacchetti, known through a copy on canvas now in the Quirinal Palace, Rome (G. Briganti, Pietro da Cortona, o della Pittura Barocca, Florence, 1962 (2nd edition, 1982), pl. 285.10). Prof. Dr Merz relates the handling of this drawing to those made in connection with the frescoes at the Palazzo Pitti, for which he suggests a date of 1643 on the basis of documentary evidence (J.M. Merz, 'Rome; Newly discovered documents and drawings: The Villa del Pigneto Sacchetti', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XLIX, (December 1990), pp. 390-406). We are grateful to Prof Dr Merz for his help in cataloguing this drawing.