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Dimensions: 224 by 175mm; 8 15/16 by 6 15/16 in

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Notes: Nicholas Turner has kindly pointed out that this very free study is a first idea for Perseus slaying Medusa, one of four large lunettes representing mythological scenes painted by Annibale in the Camerino Farnese (see Donald Posner, Annibale Carracci, London 1971, plate 92h). It seems that Annibale started his work on the Camerino after he moved permanently to Rome in about September-November 1595. The decoration of the Camerino must have been finished in 1596 or early in 1597. The planning of this small room on the piano nobile of the sumptuous Farnese palace, which was most certainly the private study of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, is discussed by the latter in several letters to his librarian, the learned humanist Fulvio Orsini, during the summer of 1595. Orsini must have supplied Annibale with the appropriate scheme for the depiction of the mythological subjects which, through the representation of heroes of antiquity, was to celebrate the virtues of Cardinal Farnese. Malvasia's assumption, followed by some modern scholars, that Annibale and Agostino worked in collaboration on the decoration of the Camerino is not confirmed by any evidence and it seems that Agostino only joined his brother in the Palazzo Farnese in the autumn of 1597, when the decoration of the room was already completed.

Many drawings have survived for the whole scheme but this addition makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Annibale's graphic style and of the genesis of his final compositional solution. There are many and significant differences from the fresco, but the main conception is already present: while the figure of Mercury is absent, Perseus, who wears the helmet that renders him invisible, has seized Medusa by her hair and is about to sever her head, while turning away and watching his own reflection in Minerva's shield. A further drawing in pen and ink and wash for the whole composition is in the Metropolitan Museum (see John Rupert Martin, The Farnese Gallery, New Jersey 1965, p. 246, no. 30, fig. 133). It represents a step beyond the present drawing as the figure of Mercury is now included. Three other black chalk studies, for the figure of Medusa and the head and legs of Mercury, are in the Louvre (see John Rupert Martin, op. cit., nos. 31-3, reproduced figs. 134-6).