This painting is a copy of a now-lost famous painting by Guido Reni, Madonna and Sleeping Child, formerly in the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Reni’s original work is known only through engravings, notably that of Jean Gerardin, and several copies that exist including one by Reni’s studio in Burghley House, Lincolnshire and in the Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini. It is likely that Sassoferrato knew the lost prime version. Copying the works of earlier masters was common practice in the 17th century, and aside from one or two notable exceptions, Sassoferrato’s copies were freely made, not intended to be strict replicas, but rather ‘improvements’ on the originals, modifying faces, figures and subtle compositional elements as he desired. This is the case in the present picture, in which the later artist changes the expression of the Virgin and most notably softens the drapery of her clothes. Two other autograph versions of the present painting are known, one in the Galleria Estense, Modena and one which was formerly with Heim Gallery and which appeared at Christie’s London in 1999 and 2000.