A rare early work on copper by leading Florentine painter Carlo Dolci, this Christ between Mary and Joseph was painted when the artist was still a teenager. Few examples are known from this period, and the work shows the influence of his master Jacopo Vignali, whose workshop he had entered in 1625, but also reveals an inventive compositional approach and signs of his exacting style that would become a hallmark of his oeuvre in the decades that followed. Comparable examples by Dolci are today housed in notable collections, including the Hermitage Museum, St.

Possibly mentioned in the 1727 inventory of Gian Gualberto Guicciardini (inherited by his son-in-law Marchese Rinuccini the following year, as sacra conversazione in figure intere piccole, con cornice intagliata e dorata di Carlino Dolci),
Antinori Family Collection, Italy,
Sotheby's, New York, January 27, 2005, Lot 153,
Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd., London,
Private collection (acquired from the above in 2006).