Circle of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino

Dukes of Beaufort collection, Badminton, probably from the late 18th century until at least 1960;

Bob Jones University Collection, Greenville, South Carolina, by 1968;

From where acquired by Dr. and Mrs. John McLario, Esq., Milwaukee, circa 1980;

Thence by descent to the present collectors.

This seventeenth-century depiction of the Madonna and Child holding a dove was likely executed during the late 1640s or early 1650s by an artist working in Guercino's studio. A second version of this composition—attributed by some scholars to Guercino himself—is in the Museo Borgogna, Vercelli, and a third is in the Galleria Estense, Modena.¹ It has been suggested that the present painting could have been executed by Bartolomeo Gennari (1594-1661), a lifetime associate of Guercino.

¹ Vercelli, Museo Borgogna, inv. no. 1906, XIII, 35; Modena, Galleria Estense, inv. no. RCGE 8412, as attributed to Cerrini Giovanni Domenico, called Cavaliere Perugino.