Attributed to The Master of Palazzo Lonati-Verri (active in Milan, mid-17th century)

This painting is very close in style and composition to the twenty-three paintings formerly decorating the Lonati Verri palace in Milan, today in the Sormani Andreani Verri palace, also in Milan. This series was traditionally attributed to Giovanni Battista Castiglione, il Grechetto, and illustrates imaginary landscapes with a wide variety of animals (see F. Zeri, La Natura Morta in Italia, Milan, 1989, I, pp. 242-5 and more recently G. and U. Bocchi, Naturaliter. Nuovi contributi alla natura morta in Italia settentrionale e Toscana, Casalmaggiore, 1998, pp. 59-62).