Girolamo da Santacroce Santa Croce, Bergamo 1480/5-1556 Venice

From the Galleria Manfrin, Venice (according to a label on the reverse);
Lord Somers, Eastnor Castle;
The Hon. Mrs. Hervey Bathurst;
With M.H. Drey Ltd., London, from whom acquired by the present owner in 1959, for £1,000.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The poplar panel has suffered from previous worm damage. The paint surface is stable. Under U-V light can be seen extensive retouching to Roxanne and her bed, lower right, and to the two central figures. The figure of Alexander has some minor restorations. There is some minor abrasion to the glazes. The varnish is moderately discoloured."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The attribution was first proposed by William Mostyn Owen and Roberto Longhi and has been recently endorsed on the basis of photographs by Everett Fahy, to whom we are grateful.

This painting once belonged to the famous Galleria Manfrin in Venice; a collection of four hundred and fifty paintings formed by Marchese Girolamo Manfrin at the end of the 18th century. The collection was housed in the Palazzo Venier, purchased by Manfrin in 1787, and a manuscript list of the collection was drawn up in the 1790s. In 1802 it passed to Girolamo's son Pietro and upon the latter's death in 1835 it passed to his sister Giulia Giovanna who had married Giovanni Battista Plattis in 1800. When she died in 1849 the collection was inherited by her two children and was subsequently dispersed between 1856 and 1897. Although it is unknown when this painting actually left the Galleria Manfrin it evidently came to England, as with other paintings from the same collection; for example, Moroni's Vestal Virgin Tuccia and Previtali's Virgin and Child with Saints, both now in the National Gallery, London.