Lodewijk Toeput, called Pozzoserrato Antwerp circa 1550 - circa 1605 Treviso

One of four principal versions of this subject, the present work can be dated to the artist's full maturity and it is likely, as with the majority of the other versions, that it was formerly ascribed to Veronese. Waagen, for example, cites one such version in the collection of James Tulloch (see G.F. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London 1857, pp. 201-2), of slightly larger dimensions than the present work. Certainly Pozzoserrato was heavily influenced by the 16th-century Venetians whose work he would have first seen in the original probably after 1573.  He remained in and around the Veneto and finally settled in Treviso in 1582, remaining in close contact with his fellow Fleming Pauwels Franck.  Despite his obvious high regard for the grand masters of the Veneto, his work always maintains, as in the present work, a distinctive combination of Flemish and Venetian styles.  It is thanks to the onset of research on the artist around the middle of the last century, notably the study of L. Menegazzi ("Ludovico Toeput [il Pozzoserrato]", in Arte Veneta, 1961, vol. XV, pp. 167-223), that Pozzoserrato's œuvre can now be defined.