Lot Essay
This painting is compositionally related to the Young Man with a Helmet in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. The picture is not, however, a mere copy: the paint is broadly applied and there is a visible pentiment in the youth's right index finger, now extended but previously in a bent position (like in the Nelson Atkins painting). We are grateful to Marco Riccòmini for endorsing the attribution to Giuseppe Maria Crespi in full, after first-hand inspection of the work.