This simple but rather beautiful study has hitherto been catalogued among the anonymous sixteenth-century Venetian drawings, but seems in fact to date from earlier in the century and to originate from the circle of Titian. The tentative attribution proposed here to Titian's pupil Paris Bordon is based on stylistic comparison with some of the numerous sheets by him drawn in this typically Venetian technique of black and white chalk on blue paper.

 The soft, rippling contours of the toes and the spare use of white heightening recur in other drawings from Bordon's maturity. Like the present drawing, several of these are studies of details of figures and drapery which were then incorporated into paintings by the artist. This study of a foot in fact corresponds quite closely, but not exactly, to the left foot of St Sebastian in Bordon's damaged altarpiece of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Sebastian and Roch in the Chiesa Arcipretale in Valdobbiadene, near Treviso. More generally, the sharp division in the lighting of the foot between the shadowed lower leg and ankle and the brightly illuminated bridge and toes is a peculiarity which recurs frequently in Bordon's paintings of all periods.

On balance, a date relatively early in his career for this drawing seems most likely. A newly revealed sketch of drapery on the verso of this sheet is consistent with Bordon's drawing style, but is too fragmentary to confirm the attribution of the drawing to him.

This text was first published in The Age of Titian: Venetian Renaissance Art From Scottish Collections (2004)