Dutch School, c. 1630

Long thought to be by a 17th-century Dutch artist active in Rome, the present picture is a fine, reduced-scale replica of one of Guercino's most celebrated works, the altarpiece of the Burial and Assumption of St. Petronilla, painted in 1623 for St. Peter's, Rome. P.J.J. van Thiel suggested that this is an early copy, painted no later than c. 1635 (written communication, 11 April 1973).