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

The present painting is an eighteenth or nineteenth century copy of a composition associated with Caravaggio and known in a few versions. The prime example is generally regarded as that in the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia.¹ While some scholars have considered that painting a reflection of a lost work by the artist, others consider it rather an interpretation of early works by Caravaggio, in particular Boy bitten by a lizard in the Roberto Longhi Foundation, Florence.²

1. Inv. no. 58.1, see https://high.org/collections/boy-with-a-carafe-of-roses/ For further discussion on the Atlanta painting and other versions, 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. See https://www.fondazionelonghi.it/collezione-darte/. Another autograph version of the Longhi painting is in the National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG6504, see https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio-boy-bitten-by-a-lizard