This is a copy, with some small variations, of the upper portion of Titian’s celebrated altarpiece known as the Pesaro Madonna in the church of the Frari in Venice. Zuccaro travelled extensively and visited Venice on three occasions, making numerous copies after the works by the city’s greatest artists: Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. It is difficult to know with any certainty exactly when he produced this drawing, although many of his copies after Venetian paintings were likely to have been made during his first visit in 1563-65, when the impact of these unfamiliar works would have been greatest. Zuccaro invariably used a combination of black and red chalk for his copies of works by other masters.