BALDUCCI, GIOVANNI, called COSCI

THE NATIVITY OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST

In the collection of the Yusupovs it was attributed to Giorgio Vasari, and the inscription on the reverse indicates that it was an attribution of long-standing. In the Pushkin Museum, after an attribution proposed by B.R.Vipper and V.N.Lazarev, it was considered to be the work of Naldini. V.E.Markova re-attributed the work to Balduccio. A preliminary drawing, which differs from the picture in several details, is held in the Albertinum in Vienna.

Provenance: acquired for the collection of the Princes Yusupov between 1827 and 1837; it was transferred from the collection of Z.N.Yusopva to the Rumyanstev Museum in 1919; in the Pushkin Museum since 1924.