A boy blowing on a burning ember

The present picture relates to a popular composition devised by El Greco early in his career in Rome, during the 1570s. He is known to have produced perhaps five versions of which only two survive: the +icture in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, and one sold at Christie's, New York, 29 January 1998, lot 121 (see H. E. Wethey, El Greco and his School, 1962, II, p. 78, no 121 and 122).