Rachel giving birth to Joseph

This picture is known through an autograph version in the Staatsgalerie Schleissheim in which the composition extends on the left to incorporate two additional figures (see G. Cantelli, Repertorio della Pittura Fiorentina del Seicento, Milan, 1983, p. 89, figs. 421-2). Cantelli (loc. cit.) records a third treatment of the subject (192 x 200 cm.) on the Milan art market in 1976. Another version was recently offered at Sotheby's, London (8 December 2005). Furini was especially prone to repeating his more popular compositions; Cantelli listing amongst others, his Andromeda (Galleria Nazionale, Rome), Penitent Magdalen (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena), Hagar in the Desert (unknown location) and Judith with the Head of Holofernes (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore), as autograph replicas.

We are grateful to Dr. Francesca Baldassari for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original.