This picture is sold with a photocopy of a certificate by Dr. Richard Cocke, dated Nov. 1, 1991. Dr. Cocke relates the composition, with its distant vista of blue mountains framed by trees, to the pair of canvases of stories of Elijah and Elisha in the Ringling Museum at Sarasota (R. Cocke, Pier Francesco Mola, 1972, pls. 37-8), the Mercury and Argus in Berlin (ibid., pl. 31) and the Meeting of Jacob and Rachel and the Rest on the Flight into Egypt in St. Petersburg (ibid., pls. 113-4). The rich coloring and Venetian landscape of the present painting also find close parallels in the pair in St. Petersburg. Evidence has recently come to light for dating the latter to 1651-2 and Dr. Cocke proposes a similar date for the present work.