The Dead Christ Supported by Three Figures

Naldini appears to have had a flair for bringing figures together in beautifully choreographed compositions, many of which he designed to embellish churches in Florence and Rome. His strong, yet mellifluous drawings reflect the influences of Michelangelo, Pontormo, and Andrea del Sarto. Naldini trained in Pontormo's workshop from 1549 to 1556. The effects of this formative experience are evident in his manner of drawing with bold scribbly contours as well as with a neatly volumetric conception of form and closely intertwined figural groups. The composition of this drawing strongly recalls that of Michelangelo's marble sculpture "Pietà with Saints" (1550–55) in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence. The attribution to the artist was made by Philip Pouncey in 1958, when the drawing was in the collection of Walter C. Baker, who had acquired it as the work of Palma Giovane. Another study by Naldini for the composition, with the bearing figures indicated as winged angels, is in a private collection in Paris (formerly C. R. Rudolf collection, London; repr. Il primato del disegno, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1980, p. 152, no. 328).