Attributed to Giuseppe Ghezzi Comunanza 1636 - 1721 Rome

This work can be dated to the end of the 17th or very beginning of the 18th century. Stylistically it belongs to the work of the late Baroque painters active in Rome at the end of the Seicento, and in particular reveals a debt to the late paintings of Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Giovanni Ghezzi, to whom a tentative attribution may be considered, was secretary of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome from 1678 until 1719, during which time his style evolved from being a thoroughly Cortonesque painter to one emerging from the influence of late Gaulli. The present work can be compared with his paintings of Saint John the Baptist baptising the People and The Baptism of Christ painted for the Church of San Silvestro in Capite, Rome (reproduced in G.C. Sestieri, Repertorio della Pittura Romana della Fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin 1994, vol. II, figs. 460 and 461).