* Baldassare Franceschini, called Il Volterrano Volterra 1611-1689 Florence

Senator Carlo Torrigiani, for whom it was probably painted in circa 1670, in Casa Torrigiani, Florence, where it is recorded as early as 1677 and still in 1775 (see Literature below).

G. Cinelli, Le Bellezze della Città di Firenze, Florence 1677 (based on F. Bocchi's 1591 ed.), as "un Bacco del Volterrano" hanging in the house of Carlo Torrigiani;
Serie degli uomini i più illustri in pittura, scultura e architettura con i loro elogi, e ritratti incisi in rame, vol. XI, Florence 1775, p. 16;
F. Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, Firenze, 1681-1728, F. Ranalli ed., Florence 1845-47, itself ed. by P. Barocchi, Florence 1974-75, vol. V, p. 178;
M. Gregori, "Il 'Bacco' dipinto per Carlo Torrigiani dal Volterrano," in Scritti in onore di Alessandro Marabottini, Rome 1996, pp. 227-230, reproduced fig. 1. 

This picture would appear to be the painting recorded by Baldinucci in the collection of Carlo Torrigiani at Casa Torrigiani in Florence as "un quadro di circa braccia tre e mezzo, con un Bacco e alcuni putti in diverse belle azioni appropriate all'invenzione" ("a painting of about three and one half lengths (wide) with a Bacchus and some putti in different graceful poses appropriate to the invention"; see Literature below). The painting is already recorded in the collection in 1677 (see Cinelli under Literature) and again in 1775, but it is no longer mentioned in the 1842 or 1893 inventories of the Torrigiani collection, thereby indicating that it had probably been sold by the family prior to these dates.

In her article on the painting, Gregori dates the Bacchus to circa 1677-82 (unaware of the citation in Cinelli which provides a terminus ante quem of 1677), during which time Volterrano was working on the decoration of the vault and cupola of the tribune in SS. Annunziata, Florence. Given that Torrigiani was one of the church's four advisors asked by Duke Cosimo de' Medici III to select a painter for the project, it seems likely that Torrigiani commissioned the painting directly from the artist just prior to the SS. Annunziata works (which began in 1670 and were completed in 1683).