Manet and Degas were perhaps the last great French artists for whom intensive periods spent studying works of art in Italy formed a vital part of their training. Manet's early work up to 1865 derived directly from this experience and the old masters never ceased to be of importance to him. Although this general picture is well known, much remains to be established about the precise models from which he worked. In the second volume of Rouart and Wildenstein's catalogue raisonne, under the heading 'Dessins d'apres les maitres, executes en Italie en 1853 et 1856', the first sixty-seven items, out of a total of 138, are listed as drawings after identified masters.' There follows a section of studies from unidentified sources, two items of which (130-31) are in fact religious compositions by Manet himself ofa later date, while seven (132-38) are city views and architectural details. Thus little more than half of the drawings in question have identified Italian sources, these having for the most part been established by Alain De Leiris, in his pioneering work of 1969.2