Mounted Warrior with a Baton Giving Orders to His Troops 1590–1646 Belisario Corenzio Italian, born Greece The present drawing and a second one in the Museum's collection (acc. no. ) were part of a group of eleven sold with an attribution to Belisario Corenzio in London in 1936. At that time, the whole series was purchased by Sir Robert Witt (1872-1952) who, after later dispersals of his collection, retained only three drawings, now in the Witt Collection at the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London (nos. 2789A, 2789B, 2789C.)After the Witt sale, of the remaining eight, two drawings foun

Mounted Warrior with a Baton Giving Orders to His Troops 1590–1646 Belisario Corenzio Italian, born Greece The present drawing and a second one in the Museum's collection (acc. no. ) were part of a group of eleven sold with an attribution to Belisario Corenzio in London in 1936. At that time, the whole series was purchased by Sir Robert Witt (1872-1952) who, after later dispersals of his collection, retained only three drawings, now in the Witt Collection at the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London (nos. 2789A, 2789B, 2789C.)After the Witt sale, of the remaining eight, two drawings found their way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (nos. and ), one is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, (inv. , formerly in the collection of Joseph McCrindle, New York; and The Sir Anthony Blunt Collection, exhibition catalogue, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1964, no. 8), three were recorded in 1992 in a private collection in Paris, while the present whereabouts of two remains the drawings measure approximately the same size (circa x cm), and are characterized by a delicate use of transparent blue wash contrasting with a rather fine brown pen line. The traditional attribution to Corenzio was supported by Walter Vitzthum, who thought it plausible that the subject might relate to a narrative cycle devoted to Don Juan de Austria, natural son of Charles V, captain general of the allied fleet that defeated the Turks at Lepanto and resident of Naples from 1573 to 1576. Vitzthum dated this narrative series early in Corenzio's career, when Tuscan influences were paramount in his draftsmanship. Similarities of style and subject matter led Vitzthum to associate two further drawings with the Don Juan de Austria series: ‘Moors or Turks Paying Homage to a Victorious General’ in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (no. 1938-88-7080), and a more general ‘Battle Scene’ in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (A. M. de Barcia, Catálog

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