within an antique gilded frame in Mecca
Provenance: Napoli, important private collection
Literature: Catalogo Sotheby's Asta Milano 2 dicembre 1994;
Oreste Ferrari, Giuseppe Scavizzi - Luca Giordano. Nuove ricerche e inediti - Napoli, 2003, pag. 75, ill. pag. 186
Photo references: Fototeca Fondazione Federico Zeri, scheda n. 52609
Published in the photo library Zeri tra le opere certe ma di posizione ignota, was rediscovered on the occasion of a Sotheby’s sale of the 90s and subsequently published as an autographed work by Ferrari and Scavizzi in the addition of 2003 to the reasoned catalog previously drawn up.
Scholars point out that the painting "...repeats with inverted composition the ideas of the oldest paintings in Rohrau, Pommersfelden and Raleigh. The revival of the cortonesco element is clear to you, but the breadth of the forms reveals a date not before the mid-eighties."
We are grateful to Professor Giuseppe Scavizzi for his help in cataloguing the painting