An inscription in a mid 19th century hand on a label on the reverse of the frame reads: 'S. Matt... by Carlo Dolci purchased in Florence from the Quaratesi Palace this with its companion (St. Peter) were painted for the family in whose possession it remained until the year 1822 / NO 6'. There is no reason to doubt the reliability of this or the inscription on the reverse of the panel itself, as Dolci is known to have worked for the Quaratesi family in the 1640s; his copy of Michelangelo's 'Portrait of Andrea di Riniero Quaratesi' drawing in the Uffizi is dated 1645 and Filippo Baldinucci records (Notizie dei Professori del Disegno da Cimabue in qua, V, ed.1847, p.347) that Dolci executed between 1648 and 1650 'un Cristo orante nell'orto, che spira gran devozione, l'ebbe Francesco Quaratesi, nobile fiorentino, ed oggi è appresso i suoi eredi'. Charles McCorquodale has pointed out that the present picture and the pendant 'Saint Peter' may well have constituted the 'Two Apostles' exhibited by the Quaratesi family in Florence in 1767 (see F. Borroni Salvadori, Le Esposizioni d'Arte a Firenze dal 1674 al 1767, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XVIII, 1974, I, p.81)