Roman School, 17th century, after Titian

Presumably French private collection, as implied by the label on the reverse.

The label written in an eighteenth-century hand on the reverse of the present work, a copy after Titian's Worship of Venus in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, ascribes the picture to Francesco Albani (1578–1660).¹ Titian's original, along with other works such as his Bacchanal of the Andrians, was painted for the Camerino d'alabastro of Alfonso I d'Este in Ferrara. In 1598 this group was moved to the Aldobrandini Palace in Rome and remained there until 1637, at which point they were turned over to Philip IV of Spain. It seems likely that Albani, who enjoyed the favor of Cardinal Aldobrandini, would have had some access to Titian's pantings during his three long stays in Rome between 1600 and 1625.

It has long been thought that Albani may have copied Titian's paintings but the only surviving evidence for this is the description of a picture by him listed in the 1639 inventory of Queen Christina of Sweden's collection, the first part of which calls to mind the Worship of Venus: 'a painting with games in honor of Venus by many cupids, who, with lit torches, dance and play around her statue'.² 

1. For Titian's original see P. Humfrey, Titian, New York 2007, p. 102, reproduced cat. no. 59A.
2. G. Campori, Raccolta di cataloghi ed inventarii inediti di quadri..., Modena 1870, pp. 345-6.