Study of Saint Mark Seated on a Cloud, copied from Sant Andrea della Valle, Rome

A study drawn in red chalk over a double sheet of a large sketchbook, whose double spine-fold is still visible across the centre of the paper, and whose corners have been cut to form an octagon. On the upper half of the double-page there is a bearded man (representing St Mark) seated on a cloud and turned to the viewer's left, holding a stone tablet with both hands, and dressed in a tunic, cloak and leggings covering his body apart from his bare arms and feet. Below on the lower part of the paper is St Mark's symbolic attribute, a lion being patted and toyed with by three baby children or cherubs, two of whom sit on its back and one touches its mane from below.