Although formerly placed as anonymous, this is a typical sheet of studies by Perino and compares well in style with the two drawings by him included in the exhibition. Unfortunately, the sheet is laid down so the studies on the verso, which partly show through the paper, are only partly decipherable. The study of the head and shoulders of a woman seen from the rear looking over her left shoulder s
According to Elena Parma (Mantua, 2001, p. 296), the figure studies on the recto were perhaps made in relation to the planning of a masque, or a similar theatrical production. According to her interpretation of the scene, the two seated female figures are receiving a bearded dwarf, accompanied by a boy, though it seems by no means certain that the man is a dwarf, his physical proportions being in
In a note on the mount, Michael Hirst observed that this is Perino del Vaga´s copy after one of the figure groups in Polidoro da Caravaggio´s now destroyed fresco, painted on the facade of the Casino del Buffalo, Rome. The appearance of the decoration survives in engravings as well as in numerous drawn copies, such as this (Ravelli, 1978, pp. 327-333, nos. 567-579). The Prado study is