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Provenance: T. Jones, Esq.;
His sale, London, Christie's, 25 March 1963, part of lot 47 (as Parmigianino);
Rosella Gilli, Milan, in 1983;
Sale, London, Christie's, 3 April 1984, lot 4
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Literature: M. di Giampaolo, Girolamo Bedoli 1500-1569, Florence, 1997, pp.170-171, no. 84.
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Notes: Konrad Oberhuber was the first to recognize this drawing as a Bedoli, suggesting that it may relate to the monochrome figures frescoed by the artist on the cross-vaults of the choir of the Duomo in Parma, which was completed in 1544 (di Giampaolo, op.cit., pp. 56-58). A drawing of Eve, now in the Louvre, is known to be a preparatory drawing for this project. Not only is it stylistically comparable to this work, but it is also executed on red prepared paper (di Giampaolo, op.cit., p. 196, no. 116 and p. 58). The Standing King, however, does not appear in the finished work, and if Oberhuber's suggestion is to be accepted this drawing must be regarded as a rejected idea for the Duomo. A study of a monk standing in a niche, sold recently (London, Sotheby's, 13 April 1992, lot 342; di Giampaolo, op.cit., pp. 170-171, no. 85), is closer in composition to the present drawing than the Louvre sheet, which depicts the figure in an oval.
