A queen with a crown, cup and dagger in an interior

A similar composition depicting Saint Catherine was offered at Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1993, lot 55 and again on 19 May 1994, lot 351, both times as Artemisia Gentileschi. This attribution was based on stylistic similarities to two paintings generally attributed to the artist in the Galleria Spada in Rome (Madonna and Child and Saint Cecilia (?), Ward Bissell, op. cit., figs. 230 and 242). However, Bissell does not support the attribution to Artemisia for the Sotheby's painting or the present lot and suggests that there may be a prime version (possibly of a sibyl) produced between 1630-1640 by a Neapolitan artist familiar with the works of Artemisia and Paolo Finoglio (ibid.).