Follower of Cesare da Sesto

The present lot is an early version of the composition by Cesare da Sesto in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Marco Carminati (op. cit., p. 210) does not exclude the possibility that this may be the picture made by Ambrogio Figino (1553-1608) for the church of San Giovanni alle Case Rotte in Milan. The del Bene family, to whose collection the picture belonged, is an historic Florentine name, whose ancestry dates back to the renowned poet and friend of Petrarch, Sennuccio del Bene (1275-1349).