Oil on panel, 47cm by 38cm.
This small painting was sold to Brownlow, 9th Earl of Exeter (1725-1793) by James Byres, the English dealer and agent in Rome, as being a highly important work by Correggio.
Its safe arrival in England in 1769 was reported in the national newspapers.
It is however, a partial copy of a full length Virgin and Child by the little known late 16th Century artist Francesco Avanzi, now in the Palazzo Manzi in Lucca.
