Follower of Hugo van der Goes

The Collection of the Marquesa Vda. del Valle, Madrid, by 1982.

Bermejo (see Literature) believes this to be the best of the known versions in Spain based on Van der Goes' famous lost original, which is known through a number of period copies, the most famous being that in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples  (see M.J. Friedlander, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leyden 1969, vol. IV, pp. 72-3, cat. no. 23, reproduced plates 36-7). She points out that the present work follows most faithfully the description by Destrée of Van der Goes' lost original and in the fine detailing is almost identical to the drawing in the Albertina, Vienna, given to Pieter Brueghel the Elder (see op. cit., under Literature, p. 204, reproduced figure 75), which is believed to be a faithful replica of the prototype. She likens the drawing and modelling to a fragment at Christ Church College, Oxford, which has been variously given to The Master of Ghent or an anonymous follower of Van der Goes.