The present picture, rediscovered by Sir Denis Mahon about ten years ago, is clearly the 'Fortuna figurata in aria, che colla destra mano tiene una reale corona' described by Baldinucci, who gives a detailed account of the circumstances in which it was executed. Reni had painted a 'Fortune with a Purse' for the Abbate Giovanni Carlo Gavotti (the picture now in the Vatican Pinacoteca; Pepper, op. cit., 1984, no.166A and pl.193) and had handed it over to him with a request that it was not to be shown to the public since it was not quite finished to his satisfaction. The artist was consequently angry on seeing the picture exhibited in one of the grandest porticoes of Bologna on one of the most important feast days; returning home, he requested to be brought to his rooms a copy which he knew to have been painted by Antonio Gerola, il Veronese, 'il primo fra gli eccellenti allieve del pittore', on behalf of Monsignor Altoviti. This he completely reworked 'e tutta col suo pennello la ricoperse', painting a crown in the hand of Fortune in place of the purse in the first version, 'e fu di comune consentimento de'professori tenuto questo quadro di monsignore d'assai maggior pregio di quello del Gavotti'.

Pepper's dating of both versions of the 'Fortune' to 1637 on stylistic grounds is supported by documentary evidence of Altoviti's presence in Bologna visiting his cousin Cardinal Sacchetti, who was Legate in the city from 1637 to 1640. The present picture may be the 'bellissima Fortuna' seen in Reni's studio in 1639 by Assarino (L. Assarino, Sensi di umiltà e di stupore intorno la grandezza dell'Eminentissimo Cardinale Sacchetti, e le pitture di Guido Reni, 1639, pp.27-8). The esteem in which the present picture was held is demonstrated by the large number of copies known, even more than of the Vatican variant (one of these, in the Accademia di San Luca, Rome, is documented as the work of Giovanni Andrea Sirani; Pepper, op. cit., 1984, fig.49). The painting was valued by Buchanan in 1804 at the high price of '#800 or even #1,000' (Brigstocke, op. cit., pp.158-9)