Lorenzo Sabatini Bologna circa 1530 - 1576 Rome

We are grateful to Prof.ssa Vera Fortunati for proposing an attribution of the present copper to Lorenzo Sabatini, on the basis of a color transparency. Prof.ssa Fortunati believes the painting to be an early work by the artist, when he was still greatly influenced by Pellegrino Tibaldi, and dates it to circa 1550. The composition is known in another version, also on copper and of similar dimensions, sold in New York, Sotheby's, May 27, 2004, lot 6 (as by Bartolomeo Passerotti; an attribution proposed by Dott.ssa Angela Ghirardi on the basis of photographs).