Bernhard Keil, called Monsù Bernardo

Keil produced a number of circular paintings of this size, all of which date to the first half of the 1650s. Most comparable to the present work are the tondi depicting A girl carrying a basket of flowers (possibly an Allegory of Spring; unknown location);¹A boy carrying a vase of flowers (possibly an Allegory of Day; private collection, Milan);² and A boy with a basket beside a column (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne).³These figures are all similarly set against a background of sky, with foliage and architectural details beside them. The subject of a child with a basket of flowers recurs throughout Keil's œuvre, often with an allegorical interpretation, and the present painting may represent an Allegory of Summer.

An old inscription on the reverse of this panel reads: Antonio Amorosi – an artist who likewise specialised in painting children but was working a generation later and in a different style.

¹ M. Heimbürger, Bernardo Keilhau detto Monsù Bernardo, Rome 1988, p. 176, no. 51, reproduced.

² http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/50421/

³ Inv. no. 3565; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bernhard_Keil_-_Bauernjunge_mit_Korb.jpg