MICHELE TOSINI, CALLED MICHELE DI RIDOLFO DEL GHIRLANDAIO (BADIA DI PASSIGNANO 1503-1577 FLORENCE) AND STUDIO

The popularity of this composition by Michele di Ridolfo Tosini is attested by the numerous versions that survive today, with one in the Museum of Fine, Arts Budapest (inv. no. 77.10), one in the collection at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA (inv. no. 1988.320), another sold by the Earl of Haddington at Sotheby’s London (8 July 1987, lot 1), one on the art market in Rome in the 1990s and another, more likely a studio version, in the Museo Soumaya, Mexico City.

At the time of the present painting's sale in 1999 (loc. cit.), Everett Fahy had endorsed an attribution to Michele on the basis of photographs. While the treatment of the figures’ hair is typical of the artist, Christopher Daly asserts that the spacing of their eyes and pronounced smiles are reminiscent of his pupils, Niccolò Betti and Francesco Brina, suggesting this was more likely to have been a collaboration. The softer, pastel tones and less pronounced folds of drapery, he notes, are also more in keeping with Betti's mature style.

We are grateful to Christopher Daly for proposing the attribution on the basis of firsthand inspection.