In very good overall condition, fresh and clean with only a few marginal nicks lower left outside the picture area; heavy laid paper shows neither collectors nor water marks, but is of the period. Ex-collection Paul Waite with his extensive notes on mat verso. As Waite noted, the signature orthography followed a Latinized form of his name. It may now be noted as well, that the script matches that in a 1724 letter by de Matteis to Matteo Egizio, and better yet is identical to artist’s autograph signature on other drawings (e.g. The Way to Calvary in the Biblioteca National de España in Madrid), both of which are reproduced in Livio Pestilli, Paolo de Matteis: Neapolitan Painting and Cultural History in Baroque Europe, Farnham, 2013, pp. 225 and 266, so that the marginal inscription on this drawing may be considered a signatory autograph. Further, Waite placed this drawing later in de Matteis’ career, whichcan be tightened to after 1717 and by 1724 in comparison with several drawings discussed by Pestilli in a well illustrated chapter on de Matteis’ drawings, pp 259-303.