DescriptionLandscape drawings were produced infrequently before the later sixteenth century. This sheet comes from a now-dismembered album of landscape studies that Fra Bartolommeo (who took religious vows and entered the monastery of San Marco in Florence in 1504) made during various journeys outside Florence, often to Dominican establishments. A number of the sites he recorded have been identified, while others are no longer recognizable. Although some of the landscape motifs seen in these engaging works occur in the backgrounds of his paintings, the drawings do not appear to have been made as preparatory studies.

ProvenanceBequeathed by Fra Bartolommeo to Fra Paolino da Pistoia, Florence; Suor Plautilla Nelli, Florence, before 1574; Convent of Santa Caterina, Piazza San Marco, Florence, acquired after Suor Plautilla Nelli's death in 1588; Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburi, Florence, acquired in or about 1727; Kent, England, acquired after Gabburi's death in 1742; private collection, Ireland; sale, Sotheby's, London, November 20, 1957; acquired by Robert Lehman in 1957