The 17th Century Filippo Baldinucci narrates that Giulio Parigi, architect and designer for the Grand Dukes of Florence, had established an academy in his own house, where he read Euclid to the students and taught mechanics, engineering, architecture, and ‘a beautiful and new way to draw lovely landscapes in pen’ (Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, Florence, ed. 1974-1975, IV,pp. 143-144). Many talented landscape artists of the time, including Remigio Cantagallina, Jacques Callot and Ercole Bazzicaluva, were influenced by Parigi’s teachings. The tree on this sheet presents qualities very similar to those found in Parigi’s own landscape drawings (Uffizi, Florence, inv. 163 P; see Mostra di disegni italiani di paesaggio del Seicento e del Settecento, exhib. cat, Florence, 1973, no. 28).