Follower of Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian

Art market, New York;
George Encil, Paris, Vienna and the Bahamas.

R. Pallucchini, Tiziano, Florence 1969, vol. II, p. 304;
R. Pallucchini, 'Una nuova Pomona di Tiziano', in Pantheon, 1971, vol. XXIX, pp. 114-124;
H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, The Portraits, vol. II, New York 1971, p. 115, under no. 60, variants and copies;
R. Pallucchini in Experience and adventures of a Collector, Paris 1989, pp. 16-21.

The design derives most closely from Titian's Salome of around 1550-1555 in the Prado in Madrid, but the platter bearing the head of the Baptist is here replaced with a tray of fruit, found in other variants painted by Titian and his workshop, notably the the slightly later version in Berlin, Staatliche Gemäldegalerie.¹The presence of the fruit has often been taken to indicate that the subject was intended to represent the Roman nymph Pomona, although this is not certain. The traditional idea that the girl depicted is Titian's daughter Lavinia, is probably apocryphal.

1. P. Humfrey, Titian. The complete Paintings, London 2007, pp. 282-283, nos. 213 and 214, reproduced.