PASQUALE CATI

(Jesi 1550-1620 Rome) The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple. Pen and brown ink and wash and gray wash heightened with white on cream laid paper. 345x300 mm; 13x11 inches. Stylized dragon watermark. The current work is likely a preliminary study for the altarpiece in the Capello di Sacramento, Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome (see Mostra Palazzo Spinola, Genoa, 1985-86, catalogue number 58). The humanist Cardinal Marcus Sitticus Altemps commissioned Cati to paint th chapel around 1588.