Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee, in a feigned oval

In 1691 Benedetto Luti won the prize at the Accademia di San Luca for his painting of God cursing Cain, and the following year painted a pendant to it, the Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee both of which entered the collection of Viscount Scarsdale at Keddleston Hall in the eighteenth century. The latter painting inspired several autograph variants that include, in addition to the present picture, the copper in the Accadamia di San Luca, Rome, and a canvas with Patrick Mattheisen, London, 1987. The present picture is arguably the most sensitively rendered of the various versions and exceptional for its setting within a carefully rendered feigned oval.