A.P.F. Robert Dumesnil (1778 – 1864), his stamp lower centre (L. 2200); William Mayor (d. 1874), his stamp lower right (L. 2799); Charles Fairfax-Murray (with his mount inscribed: study for one of the arches of the Cupola / in the Cathedral at Parma); Walter Schrott (b. Innsbruck 1878), his stamp lower left verso (L. 2383); Sale C.G. Boerner 206, Leipzig 1942, no, 523, pl. 35 (as Parmigianino)
This drawing, with its illustrious provenance, has been hidden in the same private collection for the last sixty years. With its traditional attribution to Parmigianino, its style, with its elegant, febrile outlines and elaborate hatching to describe the form are characteristic of the work of that artist and his circle. The heads in the upper left corner are similar to studies published by Popham under Parma 1530 – 1540, especially no. 149 (pl. 422) in the British Museum and no. 143 (pl. 423) at Frankfurt. (A.E. Popham, Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigianino, New Haven and London, 1971). The studies of putti on the verso are close to those in the cupola of the cathedral in Parma but are not, as suggested in the note by Fairfax Murray on the mount, studies for or copies after the putti in the spandrels. This decoration on the dome was first commissioned in 1522 from a select group of artists including Parmigianino, Michelangelo Anselme and Francesco Mario Rondani. Hugo Chapman has seen the original drawing and confirmed its origins from the circle of Parmigianino and its dating to circa 1540.
