Studio of Carlo Maratta

Probably acquired by Robert Jones II of Fonmon (1706–1742) in Rome in 1731;

Thence by descent to his son, Robert Jones III of Fonmon (1738–1793);

Thence by descent to his son, Robert Jones IV (1773–1834);

Thence by inheritance to his nephew, Robert Oliver Jones (1811–1885);

Thence by descent to his daughter, Edith Alicia Jones, who married Robert Arthur Valpy (1844–1894);

Thence by descent to their daughter, Clara Valpy (1877–1869), who married Sir Seymour Boothby (1866–1951);

Thence by descent in the Boothby family at Fonmon Castle, Vale of Glamorgan, to the present owner.

A Catalogue of the Pictures in Fonmon Castle 1743, MS D/DF F/190, Glamorgan Archives, Cardiff, no. 5 (as ‘The Virgin Mary and an Angell [sic] Showing the Crown of thorns’).

The design of this work reflects that of a painting recorded by Bellori as painted for Pope Alexander VIII (1610–1692) but given at his death to his grand-nephew Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667–1740).¹ Several versions of this composition survive, the best perhaps being in the Lothian collection at Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire.² Another autograph version of this composition sold at Sotheby's, Milan in 2004.³

¹ G.P. Bellori, Le vite de' Pittori, Scultori e Architetti moderni, G. Previtali (ed.), Turin 1976, pp. 618–19.

² S. Rudolph, Niccolò Maria Pallavicini. L'ascesa al Tempio della Virtù attraverso il Mecenatismo, Rome 1995, pp. 50–51, reproduced fig. 29.

³ Anonymous sale, Milan, Sotheby's, 30 November 2004, lot 76; https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2004/old-master-paintings-mi0235/lot.76.html