Blessing of a saint.

Drawing, black chalk, 22,6 x 17 cm, laid paper, unsigned (remargined, several brown stains, mostly at the edges).

Under passe-partout.

Although the depicted scene with angel and kneeling figure previously interpreted as the Annunciation, the mitre in the right foreground might suggest a different iconographic interpretation. The drawing might also represent the sanctification of a male saint. Since the text on the verso makes mention of Santo Carlo, the scene possibly represents the blessing of Carlo Borromeo, who is often depicted as being tendered by an angel before the altar. With additional sketches and ms. writing in Italian on verso. Stylistically, the parallel controlled handeling of the hatchings, the detailed rendering of the fabric and the soft treatment of the faces remind of the drawing style of Carlo Maratti (1625-1713). This Roman painter of the hight Baroque made a painting of Carlo Borromeo with a similar composition in the Spada chapel of S. Maria in Vallicella in Rome.