The Adoration of the Magi

The drawing appears to be a finished study for an altarpiece in the church of S. Eligio degli Orefici in Rome. The altarpiece was painted in 1639-40, in reverse and with some changes, by Baldini's contemporary and colleague Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (ca.1610-1662). The number of pentimenti and other alterations to the second king's right hand would suggest that the drawing is an original by Baldini and not a copy with variants by him from an unknown print after Romanelli's painting. The paper appears to have faded from its original blue.