
This is a study after a work by the famous 17th-century Roman artist Carlo Maratta, of an altarpiece found in the church of San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio in Rome. The unknown artist who executed the study included an abbreviated annotation of the painting S. Mr C, and dating the sheet 1701. Artists flocked to Rome from all over Europe in the 18th century to copy the ancient ruins, Renaissance architecture, and Baroque paintings. It seems likely this drawing came from a notebook by a traveling artist.