The construction of a building
XVI century. Wash, Pencil, Pencil ground, Mauve ink, Grey-brown ink on yellow paper.Not on display
It could be by Andrea Lilio who, like Bellini, was one of Barocci´s Marchigian followers. Suggestive of Lilio´s hand is the restrained use of a pale, almost mottled wash to suggest shading; the athletic and the times contorted figure types, with tall, rather rounded heads; and the close, regularly drawn squaring that covers the entire composition. The present sheet should be compared with the previous drawing which is a particularly fine, finished work unquestionably by the master.
The subject of the present sheet remains to be identified, but a crucial participant in the scene is the ruler faintly drawn on the right, in profile to the left, who directs the construction.
Turner, Nicholas, From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Chicago, Art Services International, 2008, p.310
