The Pool of Bethesda
Second half of the XVI century. Wash, Pencil, Grey-brown ink on yellow paper.Not on display
The drawing is connected with one of two large upright frescoes by Perino formerly in the Cappella Massimi in S. Trinita dei Monti, Rome. One, the Raising of Lazarus, is detached and now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the other, the Pool of Bethesda, is lost, but its appearance is preserved in a chiaroscuro woodcut, in which Christ appears on the right and points with his left hand. The presence of stylus indentations on the Prado drawing -demonstrating that the composition has been transferred to or from another surface- would seem to indicate a connection with the woodcut.
Turner, Nicholas, From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Chicago, Art Services International, 2008, p.352
