Stefano Magnasco (c. 1635-c. 1670/3)

Stefano Magnasco, father of the more familiar Alessandro, was a pupil of Valerio Castello, whose influence can be detected in this canvas: he was also aware of the example of Castiglione, and of pictures of Van Dyck's Genoese years. A sojourn in Rome in the late 1650s widened Magnasco's artistic horizons. There are few dated works by the artist, but this canvas would appear to be of his later period at Genoa, to which he seems to have returned in 1660.