The identity of the Neapolitan painter known as the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds has been constantly debated since the 1920s, when August L. Mayer first distinguished this artist's hand in a painting (City Art Gallery, Birmingham, England) that was formerly attributed to Velazquez. The present lot was among the first of the nearly forty paintings that scholars have been able to attribute to the anonymous Master; its association with this artist has always been accepted. Giuseppe De Vito (op. cit., 1984-85) has pointed out that the present lot probably represents an allegory of the 'Sense of Hearing', thus following a famous precedent by Jusepe de Ribera. Two half-length paintings by the Master representing 'A Girl with a Rose' (108.5 x 78.5cm.) and 'A Man with a Mirror' (103 x 75cm.) (both private collection, Naples) are probably allegories of the senses of sight and smell.

John T. Spike (The Burlington Magazine, February 1992) has established that the name of the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds was in fact Bartolomeo Passante (1618-1648), a Neapolitan painter who achieved considerable recognition despite his short life. He demonstrates that the widespread confusion between the names of Passante and of Bartolomeo Bassante, a lesser artist, did not begin until well after their lifetimes.

In a forthocming study Spike (op. cit., 1993) confirms the attribution of the present lot to Passante, and suggests that it and the above mentioned paintings of the same format might be identical with the series by Passante of five paintings of the senses in the collection of Filippo Pisacane, marchese di S. Leucio, Naples in 1702 (Cinque quadri di palmi 2 e 2 1/2 in circa di mano di Bartolomeo Passante colle figure dei cinque sensi del corpo con cornice intagliata.; the complete inventory published by R. Ruotolo in ricerche sul'600 napoletano, 1987, pp. 187-189).