Attributed to Camillo Procaccini Bologna circa 1555 - 1629 Milan

With Antiguedades Kerteux, Buenos Aires (according to a label on the reverse of the stretcher).

The canvas has been relined. The paint surface is generally secure though abraded in areas and subsequently retouched. There are further scattered retouchings and strengthenings throughout. Offered in a gold and black painted wooden frame.
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The present painting relates in composition to an altarpiece by Procaccini in the church of Sant' Antonio Abate, Milan (see N. W. Neilson, Camillo Procaccini, Paintings and Drawings, New York and London 1979, p. 34, no. 42, fig. 219, who dates the altarpiece to about 1615-16). There are slight differences, such as the addition of two angels at the top centre of the composition, as well as the figure of a small boy (the Infant Baptist?) at the lower right, directly to the right of the Infant Christ. It is possible that the present painting is a preliminary study for the final altarpiece.  Among oil sketches in the artist's oeuvre is a study for the Transfiguration in the Milan Cathedral in the Royal Collection, Windsor (inv. 01220, see A.E. Popham and J. Wilde, The Italian Dawings of the XV and XVI Centuries... At Windsor Castle, London 1949, reproduced plate 150, cat. no. 768); the Windsor sketch is painted on paper in grey and purple oil, and is fairly large like the present work, measuring 62 by 32.5 centimeters.