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inscribed lower left with inventory number 91 oil on copper Gail Feigenbaum, based on first hand inspection, dates this painting to Ludovico's mature period, circa 1590. She will be including the painting in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Ludovico Carracci. The eminent biographer Count Carlo Malvasia (1616-1693) records a "piccolo S. Sebastiano in paesa legato all'arbore" in the collection of the 'Principe Palestrina' (almost certainly Don Maffeo Barberini); a description which matches that of the present work. A photograph in the photographic archives of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., identifies another painting - a Saint Sebastian (22 by 32 in.) formerly in the Graf Paul Radaz collection near Budapest - with the reference in Malvasia. It seems far more likely, however, that Malvasia's description relates to the present picture, which is ``piccolo'' (considerably smaller than the Radaz picture) and has Barberini provenance. This small copper is listed in four different Barberini inventories, all of which were published by Lavin (see Literature below), although the artist is only named in the last of these (1686). The first inventory, drawn up circa 1648-49, describes the painting as "Un quadro di S. Sebastiano dipinto in rame legato a un albero alto p.mi 2 e doi quarti e largo p.mi 2 1/4 con cornice negra rabescata d'oro" (Lavin, see Literature below, p. 215, V.inv. 48-49. 587b). The painting is described again a few years later, as "Un Quadro in rame d'un San Bastiano legato ad un tronco d'albere Cornice d'Albuccio tinta di nero con fiori e filetti d'oro alto palmi due e mezzo" (Lavin, op. cit., p. 266, VII.inv.55, 41). In an inventory datable to some time after 1672, the painting reappears as "Un S. Bastiano In Rame alto p.mi 1 1/2 Inc. e largo p.mi 1 1/4 con Cornice liscia Oro e Nero mano di-" (ibid., p. 364, VII.Alpha.72+, 43)