Resurrection of Christ

William Roscoe believed that this drawing was by the Roman-born artist Giulio Romano (about 1499 - 1546), who executed many of the great Renaissance artist Raphael's designs in Rome and took over Raphael's workshop on the latter's death in 1520. An earlier owner of the drawing, the Milanese-born Sebastiano Resta (1635 - 1714), believed that it was a preliminary drawing for a 'Resurrection of Christ' painted onto one of the large organ shutters covering the organ in Milan Cathedral. The organ in Milan Cathedral is the largest in Italy and has some 15,800 pipes. From the 1560s onwards a number of eminent local artists, including Camillo Procaccini (1561 - 1629), were commissioned to paint biblical scenes onto the shutters. Between 1592 and 1598 Procaccini painted three scenes on the south shutters of the organ, including the Resurrection of Christ. Although this drawing is not a preliminary design for that painting, as Resta mistakenly thought, it may be a sketch for an etching (Procaccini was also known to make prints), or it could be by another Milanese artist of the period.