Virgin and Child with Other Figures in a Landscape (Rest on the Flight into Egypt)

The drawing´s former attributions included the circle of Titian and Dosso Dossi, and Philip Pouncey suggested Palma Vecchio (according to Janos Scholz’s records). An anonymous note in Scholz’s records notes a chance of attribution to Simone Cantarini, an identification also independently suggested by Mario di Giampaolo (undated note on the mount).

The drawing is probably a study for the artist’s etching of The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, with the Virgin and Child seated in the foreground and Joseph at left (Bartsch 1819, 19: no. 5). An adoring angel in the lower left corner of the sheet seems to have been omitted for the print. Two angels near a tree at upper left are the ones lowering the branches of a palm tree in the print. Further related drawings are in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. 4152S) and in the collection of C.L. Lloyd in Lockinge, Berkshire.

Cantarini repeatedly turned to the subject of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt; unrelated compositions include a painting in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milani (Bologna 1997, no. I.46) and another etching of the subject, of a horizontal format and not connected to the Morgan Library drawing in design.