Studies of Figures for the Apotheosis of Bodoni

Scholars know little about this simple sketch, celebrating Giambattista Bodoni, an Italian printer who designed several modern typefaces in the late 1700s. It was probably taken from the pages of a notebook, as the top of the mount has been stamped with the numbers 16 and 3.

The drawing, which shows three different groups of figures gathered at a balcony, is a preparatory study for the artist's cartoon The Apotheosis of Giambattista Bodoni.