This drawing is connected to one of the figures in the painting Jupiter expelling the Vices by Paolo Veronese. Painted around 1555 for the Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci in the ducal palace in Venice, the canvas was brought by Napoleon to Paris at the end of the 18th Century and has been now at the Louvre ever since (inv. 147; see T. Pignatti and F. Pedrocco, Veronese, Milan, 1995, I, pp. 63-74, under nos. 34-36, ill.). The quality of the sheet and the distinctive technique reveal that it was probably the work of an artist in Veronese’s close circle - perhaps his own younger brother and collaborator Benedetto Caliari. It is conceivable indeed that Benedetto was copying Veronese’s paintings as a form of exercise. Stylistically the drawing is similar to another sheet with God the Father and two angels in a private collection, recently attributed to Benedetto (T. Dalla Costa, ‘Sul ruolo della bottega ripensando Benedetto Caliari’, in Paolo Veronese. Giornate di Studio. Proceedings of the International Conference (Verona, 27-29 September 2014), Venice, 2016, p. 194, ill.). A note on the verso of the mount records that Philip Pouncey had suggested an attribution to the young Veronese himself.
We are grateful to Xavier Salomon for suggesting the current attribution.