NOTE: Please note the updated provenance. Central Italian School, late 16th/early 17th century- Venus and Cupid at the Forge of Vulcan; pencil, pen and sepia ink on paper, 25 x 20.6 cm. Provenance: The descendants of Sidney and Stella Churchill (1862-1921 and 1883-1954) and Ruth Plant (1912-1988). Private Collection, UK. Note: The artist of this striking mythological drawing appears to have been influenced by the Roman Mannerist painters of the earlier part of the 16th century, including Perino del Vaga (1501-1547) and Giulio Romano (1499-1546), whose dynamic ornamental designs and frescoes of mythological subjects would inspire artists for generations to come. The strongly hatched background and the addition of the oval device in the lower right corner indicate that the present drawing was possibly conceived as a decorative design, or was perhaps executed in preparation for an engraving. The symmetrical, tightly contained composition, crowded with muscular deities and classical attributes, is reminiscent of the mythological and classical illustrations that appeared in emblem books published during the later 16th and early 17th centuries. Examples include humanist writer Achille Bocchi's (1488-1562) 'Symbolicarum Quaestionum', published in 1574, with engravings by Giulio Bonasone (1498-1574) to designs by Agostino Carracci (1557-1602), Prospero Fontana (1512-1597) and others, as well as Cesare Ripa's (1555-1622) 'Iconologia' (published with illustrations in 1603), and Vincenzo Cartari's (c. 1531-1590) 'Imagini degli Dei degli Antichi' with illustrations by Bolognino Zaltieri (fl. circa 1555-1580).