Oil on canvas, 98cm by 116cm. Signed on the well: Carolus Maruttvs.P.
This painting and its pair, PIC426, appear in the 1688 Burghley Inventory: ‘The best bedd chamber: 2 pictures over ye Doores a Magdalen praying, & our Saviour & ye Samaritan wo: by Carlo Marrattus.’
Carlo Maratta was a painter much favoured by John, 5th Earl of Exeter (1648-1700).
The earl bought a number of works from Maratta, his steward recording a payment of 600 crowns to the artist in the winter of 1683-4, as the party made its way home from Naples.
Like several Grand Tourists he commissioned Maratta to paint his portrait whilst in Italy, though sadly, this is no longer at Burghley and remains unidentified.
