A Neo-Classical Flagellation of Christ by an unknown artist?

This drawing was never included in K.T. Parker’s collections catalogues of the Ashmolean drawings published in 1938 and 1956. In fact, he placed it in the boxes titled “Netherlandish Rejects” (which doesn’t necessarily indicate that Parker thought the sheet is Netherlandish, but rather that it was not to be included in his selection of drawings for the catalogues). Sadly, these “Rejects” (tucked away from the main drawings series in the Print Room) have since been largely neglected and have rarely been the subject of research. Following recent research projects on the Ashmolean’s German and Italian drawings, this drawing has piqued the curators’ interest as a “puzzle”. It is currently catalogued as a copy by an Anonymous artist, possibly eighteenth century, because of the architectural background and costume. Very tentative suggestions have tried to link the subject to inspired by Tiepolo, but this seems unlikely. The watermark is a seven-pointed foolscap with countermark “LB” (which is found in mid-seventeenth-century papers). We are seeking a firmer attribution and date, and ideally the source this image might be copied after.