The Venetian master Cima painted a large altarpiece of the Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Louis of Toulouse for the church of Santa Chiara on the island of Murano, outside of Venice around 1496-98.
This drawing is a study for the head of St. Jerome in this painting and is exactly the same size as the finished head which suggests that it may have served as a guide during the completion of the picture. Since it is unmarked by a stylus or by pricking, it cannot have been used as a cartoon in the usual sense.
Provenance
Collection of Sunderland from Buonfiglio (Bologna); Sagredo family (Venice), Robert Udney (English consul); J P Heseltine, Henry Oppenheimer.