St Margaret of Cortona Kneeling before the Christ Child and Offering Him a Book

The fact that St Margaret also came from Cortona, the artist’s birthplace, may have been the reason why Pietro da Cortona dedicated this sheet to her. Whether the drawing served as a preliminary study for an altarpiece is not known. However, it was later used for a print. The artist was dissatisfied with the original drawing of Margaret’s cape: he pasted a piece of paper over it with an improved version.