For the attribution, compare for instance The Guardian Angel in the Church of the Pietà dei Turchini, Naples (exhibited Naples, Battistello Caracciolo e il primo naturalismo a Napoli, 9 Nov.1991-19 Jan.1992, p.280, no.2.31, illustrated in colour p.81).

A copy of the centre section of the present picture is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chartres (A. Brejon de Lavergnée and N. Volle, Musées de France, Répertoire des peintures italiennes du XVIIe siècle, Paris, 1988, p.408, illustrated, as 'Naples, première moitié du XVIIe siècle'). Vitale is documented as having painted a Saint Francis in Meditation for S. Maria di Monteoliveto, Naples, in 1613