Niccolò Betti (Florence c. 1550-after 1617)

Everett Fahy proposed the attribution on the basis of a transparency in 2005. He points out that two versions of the composition have been sold in New York as Francesco del Brina (Christie's, 24 January 2003, lot 78; and Sotheby's, 23 January 2003, lot 42). He considers both of those works and the present picture to be variants of a popular design that evolved in the third quarter of the 16th Century in Florence. Betti was a pupil of Michele di Ridolfo and according to Fahy, 'a rather more refined contemporary of Brina's'.