European Art & Old Master Paintings

Literature
Alessandro Ballarin, Dosso Dossi: La Pittura a Ferrara Negli Anni del Ducato di Alfonso I, Vol. I, Bertoncello Artigrafiche, Cittadella, 1995, no. 402, figs. 178 and 179 (another version as attributed to Battista [de Luteri] Dossi).

Note
The present work follows the same composition of a painting attributed to Battista [de Luteri] Dossi in the Collection of Giacomo Bargellesi, Milan. While the original work (on which the copy is based) is lost and only known to us through a photograph in the Fondazione Longhi, The Szépmuvészeti Múzeum in Budapest owns another version of the painting, which in 1900 Adolfo Venturi considered to be a copy after the original by Dossi. In 1989, Vilmos Tátrai first thought of a copy done by Dossi's workshop (while the Master may have been alive), but later suggested the name of the Master of the Twelve Apostles, which inspired the attribution to the present work. This Master of the Twelve Apostles was an anonymous artist active in Ferrara and Rovigo during the second quarter of the 16th century. A contemporary of Dosso Dossi and Battista (de Luteri) Dossi, he was known for borrowing (and reinterpreting) several of their original designs.