The head of a young Christ

This painting repeats a composition by Carlo Dolci, best known through the autograph versions in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid (1663) and Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (1674), both of which show the Christ Child seated, in full-length, on some steps leading to a garden. A reduced autograph variant, which corresponds closely to the format of the present work, is in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich. While possessing a personality which is undoubtedly independent from the porcelain-like surfaces of Dolci's own work, the present picture is of a decidedly higher calibre than many of the numerous studio repetitions that were produced for the local market, and may well have been executed by the artist's daughter, Agnese (1635-1686).

As Francesca Baldassari notes, Baldinucci's accounts of the numerous works depicting the six-year-old Christ Child sitting in a garden with a garland of flowers attest to the considerable popularity of this unusual subject in Florence during the seventeenth century (F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci, Complete Catalogue of the paintings, Florence, 2015, p. 327).