Follower of Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio, 18th or 19th century

The present painting is an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century copy of a Caravaggesque composition known in several versions, the prime of which is generally regarded as the painting in Atlanta's High Museum of Art (inv. no. 58.1).¹ While some scholars consider that painting a reflection of a lost original by Caravaggio, others assert it the composition is inspired by several early works by the artist, in particular his Boy bitten by a lizard in Florence's Roberto Longhi Foundation.²

¹ For further discussion of the Atlanta painting and its relation to other versions of the composition, see R. Spear, "A Note on Caravaggio's 'Boy with a Vase of Roses'," in Burlington Magazine vol. 113 (August 1971), pp. 470-473. 

² Another autograph version of the composition is in London's National Gallery (inv. no. NG6504).