Moses Saved from the Waters

Giuseppe Diamantini was a painter and engraver who trained in Bologna under Giovanni Andrea Sirani, and later settled in Venice, where he came under the influence of Pietro Liberi. The drawing does not find a direct match in either the artist's engravings or paintings, although its attribution remains unquestionable. The sheet nevertheless shows several affinities with other works, especially in the rendering of the hair and the definition of the faces, particularly in the study for a Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Angels in Stuttgart (1). The main figure under the parasol, on the other hand, recalls Euterpe from the engraving Saturn, Cupid, and Euterpe (2). Finally, the female figure wearing a turban-like headdress recalls the female heads created by Diamantini for Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert with the Angel, now in a private collection, and for Artemisia with the Ashes of Mausolus and the Handmaid in Urbino (3).