Robert Lawrence Thomas MacEwen (also known as Robert Thomson) (d.1913), by whom reputedly acquired in the 1880s during the Chile-Peruvian war and by whom given, in 1910, to Father James MacNeil of St. Donnan's, Isle of Eigg (as by Zurbarán);
Removed from St. Donnan's in the 1950s and moved to St. Columba's Cathedral, Oban, where it hung until recently.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas is lined and the paint surface is raised and unstable in some areas. There are visible discoloured retouchings throughout, some, however, are in excess of the damage they cover. The degraded and discoloured varnish disguises the fine filigree of pale crack in the darker areas. Some of the more vulnerable scumbles and glazes have been compromised. A strong image and a worthy candidate for restoration."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The handling of draperies and colouring in the present work, though ultimately inspired by the works of Caravaggio, seem closer to the works of Orazio Gentileschi and Carlo Saraceni. The curious blue-grey pigment used for the skirt of the mourning Virgin and the soft modelling of Christ's near-naked body are also reminiscent of the few paintings given to `Pensionante del Saraceni'; an as yet unidentified artist who is recorded as a lodger in Carlo Saraceni's home in Rome and who some scholars believe to have been French, but about whom very little else is known. Pensionante's characteristic softness, as demonstrated in his most famous painting of An Old Man selling Fruit in the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts¹ and in his Old Man selling Chickens in the Museo del Prado, Madrid,² is not entirely comparable to the handling in the present work. It seems strange that no record of this composition appears to be known, for its design is remarkably refined. The tomb slab, placed so dramatically behind the figures, is a particularly bold compositional motif, and the manner in which the right foot of Christ is enveloped in his white drapery, like a burial shroud, and the right hand of the Magdalene is reverently wrapped in her cloak, to protect her from the thorny crown she carefully removes from Christ's head, shows a level of sophistication that far exceeds much of what was being produced by painters of the Caravaggesque movement in Rome during the first quarter of the 17th Century.

1. Reproduced in colour in F. Zeri, La natura morta in Italia, vol.II, Milan 1989, p. 719.
2. Reproduced in A. Ottani Cavina, Carlo Saraceni, Milan 1968, fig. 28.