Christ Disputing with the Doctors in the Temple and Separate Studies of a Head and of a Figure
XVII century. Grey-brown ink, Wash, Pencil ground on yellow paper.Not on display
As Scavizzi rightly pointed out in a note on the modern museum mount, the principal composition is derived from Parmigianino. From the style of the copy, as well as that of the separate studies to the left and upper right which are free inventions not based on Parmigianino, the copyist must have been a competent artist in his own right and not a mere amateur. The handling suggests a draftsman working in the orbit of Guido Reni (1575-1642), as is indicated in particular by the separate study of the head of a bearded man, top left.
Parmigianino’s drawn prototype of Christ Disputing with the Doctor in the Temple, formerly in the Arundel and Zanetti collections, is today in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Turner, Nicholas, From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Chicago, Art Services International, 2008, p.338
