This drawing is a late compositional study for Carpaccio's panel painting of the Virgin and Child with Four Saints in the Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon. The Virgin and Christ Child with Saint John the Baptist and two female saints are set against a complex landscape background inhabited by three hermit saints. At center left, Augustine speaks to the small child; Jerome stands on the rocky arch; and Anthony Abbot sits just inside a small hut surmounted by a cross.
Vittore Carpaccio (1460/66–1525/26), Sacra Conversazione
, ca. 1500–1512 , Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over red chalk; brown ink border at left, top and right; left, top and right edges marked off for transfer, Gift of the Thaw Collection, 2006
, 2006.46