Certainly executed around 1600, at the dawn of the Baroque era, this frank and naturalistic portrait study is nonetheless difficult to attribute. At various times ascribed to members of the Bassano family of artists or to Carletto Caliari – all Venetian – current scholarship places it within the orbit of the Florentine master Cristofano Allori, who was among the first generation of Tuscan artists to react against the Mannerist style of the late Michelangelo and of Bronzino.