ATTRIBUTED TO LAVINIA FONTANA (BOLOGNA 1552-1614 ROME)

This Adoration of the shepherds is comparable with a painting of the same subject in the Pinacoteca Civica, Imola (inv. no. 39). Maria Teresa published the Imola painting in her 1989 monograph as by Lavinia Fontana, accounting for some of its stylistic inconsistencies as due to it being a youthful work by the artist (M.T. Cantaro, Lavinia Fontana bolognese ‘pittora singolare’: 1552-1614, Milan, 1989, p. 59, no. 4a.3). Having viewed the Imola Adoration firsthand more recently in 2014, Babette Bohn has expressed doubts as to its attribution (written communication with the department, 18 August 2021). Comparing it to the present copper, Bohn believes the two works may well be by the same hand, though whether both can be ascribed to the young Fontana or a separate, as yet anonymous, Mannerist painter from the same period remains unclear.

We are grateful to Babette Bohn for providing her thoughts on the basis of photographs.