Florentine School, circa 1550

In the posession of the family of the current owners since the early 20th century. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting on heavy panel has a horizontal reinforcement through the center of the reverse that may be original. There are no other reinforcements, and there is an original join running through the center of the piece. The panel is flat, and the paint layer is stable. There is an overall warm tone to the piece which suggests that the varnishes on the surface may have yellowed. A few incidental retouches are visible under ultraviolet light, none of which are particularly alarming. It is probably fair to say that more retouches would become apparent if the picture were fully cleaned, particularly in the background. There is slight instability in the wing on the left and in the red fabric on the figure's left hip. This is a picture that would respond to cleaning, and may well become considerably more effective if it were cleaned. However, a good deal more thinness would become apparent when the restorations are removed.
"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."

ENGRAVED:
Davide Testi, 1849 (with an inscription erroneously giving the design to Michelangelo).¹  

The composition of the present work is based on a drawing in the Uffizi, Florence, formerly attributed to Michelangelo, but now catalogued as by Alessandro Allori.² The painting is faithful to the drawing in almost every detail, though the present picture has a more fully realized composition, including finished hands and a surrounding border. The artist of the present work likely chose to reproduce the Uffizi drawing composition given that it was ascribed to Michelangelo throughout the sixteenth century up until the early twentieth century. Though other painted versions have yet to surface, it seems likely that it would have been a popular composition at the time given its connection to Michelangelo. 

The goddess Fortuna was associated with luck and good fortune. As such, she was revered as the bearer of abundance, and thus was particularly cherished by farmers and mothers and depicted as a fertility deity. Fortuna was often represented bearing a cornucopia as the giver of abundance and a rudder as controller of destinies, or standing on a ball to indicate the uncertainty of fortune. Here, however, she rides upon on a wheel (Rota Fortunae) which would spin at random and decide a persons luck, an iconographic symbol which gained popularity in medieval times as an allusion to the transient nature of fate.

A painting which follows the Uffizi drawing, formerly attributed to Michelangelo, was located in the collection of celebrated 19th century opera singer Mario De Candia. Later, that picture was in the Hannerman collection. Though the present work has not been positively connected with the former De Candia picture, such a connection should not be ruled out.³ 

1. An example is located in the British Museum, London (reg. no. 1851,0802.6).
2. A. Petrioli Tofani, Gabinetto disegni e stampe degli Uffizi. Inventario. 1. Disegni Esposti, Florence 1986, pp. 271-2, cat. no. 609E, reproduced. 
3. Ibid, p. 272.