Study for a Male Figure Lowered into a Grave (recto); Kneeling Female Figure in Profile to Left (verso) 1607-13 Cigoli (Ludovico Cardi) Italian The figures on both recto and verso are studied for the Burial of Saint Paul painted by Cigoli for the apse of the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome. The painting was commissioned in 1606-1607 and, though unfinished at Cigoli's death, it was placed in the apse of the Basilica where it remained until the destructive fire of 1823. The painting, considered by Cigoli's contemporaries to be one of his masterpieces, is documented in a group of preparatory studies preserved in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence (see: Miles Chappell in Disegni dei toscani a Roma, 1580-1620, Florence 1979, nos. 98-103).On the recto, a studio assistant reclining in a hammock () is studied for the figure of Saint Paul being lowered into his tomb. The two hands at upper left indicate the action of reuniting Saint Paul's head with his body at the