Attributed to Domenico Cresti, called Passignano, Italian 1558-1638- Study of a male nude; red chalk on laid paper, bears inscription 'Pasingnano' in pen and ink (lower right), 39 x 25.5 cm. Provenance: Private Collection, UK. Note: Although the 17th century Florentine biographer Filippo Baldinucci praised Passignano as a draughtsman, writing that ‘I disegni del Passignano sono maravigliosi per la nobilità della maniera, e per una loro propria morbidezza e pastosità’, his drawings have remainedparatively less studied than those of other Florentine artists of the period. Primarily a painter working in the late-Renaissance or Mannerist style, he was also a highly skilled draughtsman and, like most of his artistic contemporaries, prepared his paintings with pen and ink sketches, followed by single figure studies in chalk, taken from a posed life model. He was devoted to life drawing, and a number of his other academic studies of male nudes in red chalk survive today in the Uffizi, the Louvre and elsewhere.Please refer to department for condition report