Workshop of Giovanni Battista Morelli (Rome - Madrid after 1665) Italo-Spanish, 17th century

Giovanni Battista Morelli was a disciple of Alessandro Algardi in Rome where he produced stucco decoration for the arches and vaults of the central nave of St. Peter's and the Basilica of St. John Lateran. He moved to Spain in 1659 and eventually became court sculptor to Philip IV. A nearly identical painted terracotta figure of the sleeping Christ Child with a skull by Morelli, from the Royal collections, is in the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid.