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Attributed to GIUSEPPE DIAMANTINI (Fossombrone 1621 - 1705) MOSES AND THE DAUGHTERS OF JETHRO (Ex. 2:11-15)
Black chalk, heightened with white, on grey paper. Inscribed 'cavalier diamantini' in brown ink on the verso. 311 x 193 mm.
I do not know any black chalk drawing by Diamantini, and this drawing doesn't fit well his nervous and agitated draftsmanship in pen and wash. But the drawing is surely by a good Venetian hand of the late seventeenth century, and the old attribution deserves attention.

Giuseppe Diamantini possibly studied painting in Bologna. He worked mainly in Venice. An accomplished etcher, he produced about sixty prints, mainly on classical mythological subjects. A large group of his pen sketches is in Stuttgart, see C. Thiem, 'Italienische Zeichnungen 1500-1800', exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, 1977; nos. from 281 to 304.