Saints Andrew and Peter and a Bishop

The two figures on the left and centre represent Saint Peter, holding his attribute of a large key to the kingdonm of heaven, and Saint Andrew, shown standing in front of the diagonal cross (or saltire) on which he was martyred. On the right stands an unidentified bishop holding what appears to be a chalice. The drawing could be a preliminary design for an as yet unidentified altarpiece. The attribution to the Florentine Renaissance artist Fra Bartolommeo (about 1472-1517), who was celebrated for his drawings, was first made by Jonathan Richardson Senior (1667-1745) in the eighteenth century. The attribution was retained by William Roscoe in the early nineteenth century. In the twentieth century A E Popham, Keeper of the British Museum's prints and drawings collection, dismissed the attribution to the Fra Bartolommeo and instead suggested an artist closer in period to Raffaelino da Reggio (1550-1578), a shortlived painter who mainly worked in Rome.