This is one of a small handful of extant drawings by Stefano, who was among the leading northern Italian artists of the early fifteenth century. The son of a French painter, Stefano worked throughout northern Italy, but only one signed picture by him survives, The Adoration of the Magi from about 1435 (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan). The style of the drawing, with its long flowing lines and elegant elongated figures, is typical of the period. The Metropolitan Museum sheet was originally part of a modelbook or sketchbook. Further related pages are in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, and the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden.

Inscription: The nearly effaced inscription in pen and brown ink on the upper left quadrant of the verso can be reconstructed, "Questo desegno fo de felipo". This inscription may be traceable to a Veronese collector from the early 15th century, by the name of "Filippo." On the verso, at the top center of the sheet, an inscription in pen and brown ink has been partially obliterated by scraping.

Felice Feliciano, Verona; Count Ludovico Moscardo Minischalchi, Verona; Count Mario Miniscalchi-Erizzo, Verona; Private Collection, Germany ; Private Collection, United States

Paul Jeromack "The Sefano da Verona they thought dated from 1900" The Art Newspaper. 66, January, New York, 1997, p. 11, ill.

Annegrit Schmitt, Katrin Bellinger Old Master Drawings. New York, 1997, fig. no. 1, 2, ill.

George R. Goldner, Colta Ives, Carolyn Logan, Perrin Stein "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1996-1997." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.s., vol. 55, no. 2, Autumn 1997, p. 25, ill.

Evelyn Karet "Arte Lombarda" Stefano da Verona, Felice Feliciano and the First Renaissance Collection of Drawings. Nuova serie, 3, Milan, Italy, 1998, fig. no. figs. 9, 10, pp. 31, 36-38, ill.

Annegrit Schmitt Per Luigi Grassi: Disegno e Disegni Eine unbekannte Zeichnung des Stefano di Giovanni da Verona. Rimini, Italy, 1998, fig. no. fig. 1, recto, pp. 25-39, ill.

Evelyn Karet Drawings of Stefano da Verona and His Circle and the Origins of Collecting in Italy: A Catalogue Raisonné. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 2002, cat. no. 9, 69-71, ill.