Attributed to Jacopo da Valenza

Anonymous sale ("Property from a Private Collection"), London, Sotheby's, 6 December 2007, lot 227, where acquired by the present owner.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a single panel without a joint. It has a faint curve but has clearly always been perfectly stable, with no trace of cracking or raised paint, past or present. There is minor old worm damage in the upper left corner and old nail holes behind from early cross bars at the top and the base, which has caused a slight past crack at the centre of the base edge in the cartellino, with one little lost flake and a tiny retouching. The base edge has a narrow retouched line and there are minor retouched fillings in the two top corners. The craquelure is beautifully fine and even, and the surface has been remarkably well preserved, with an unworn translucent slight patina, and all the delicate detail of the hair for instance, and the features intact. There is a single accidental damage in the beard on the jawline, where an old knock has been retouched (imperfectly), but otherwise only one minute retouching by the right eyebrow and minimal touches on the lower chest. This painting is exceptionally finely preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"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 is based on the stylistic similarities between the present painting and the figure of Christ in the signed Pietà in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (see B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School, vol. I, London 1957, plate 356).