A drawing of a falling muscular nude, an arm outstretched. The drawing is a study for one of the figures in the chiaroscuro woodcut of the Fall of the Giants, by Bartolomeo Coriolano after design by Guido Reni (Bartsch XII, p.113, no. 11). Coriolano produced his first woodcut after Reni in 1627, and towards the end of his life Reni provided Coriolano with several designs for chiaroscuros. Reni was plagued by gambling debts, and this collaboration may have been seen by the master as an easy way to earn some money. This woodcut was first published in 1638; three years later Coriolano produced a second version (not a later state), with small variations (RCIN 807713). Why he should have gone to the trouble of cutting a second set of blocks is unknown, and it can only be assumed that he had somehow been deprived of the first set.

The study corresponds closely, but not exactly, with the figure in the print; it is also about 8 per cent larger than that in the print, and even when scaled down the contours do not match, demonstrating that the route from drawing to print was freehand rather than mechanical. Sketched to the lower right of the sheet are the head and arm of a second giant for the print. Inscribed in the left margin, 'Guido R...', cut.

A. Sutherland Harris (in Master Drawings, 1996, p.204) questioned the attribution to Reni, characterising it as 'a dubious sheet ... since it is in the same direction as the print'. B. Bohn (in correspondence) identified a companion sheet in the Uffizi (12448-F, classed as a copy after the print) as a study for the giants crushed at the bottom of the print.