Anonymous sale, Cologne, Van Ham, 21 November 2008, lot 552 (as Maratta).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work is in beautiful condition. It has not been recently restored and would benefit from some attention. The canvas has a thin old lining. The paint layer remains stable and even. A few tiny dots of retouching can be seen under ultraviolet light, and very few retouches would be revealed if and when the picture is cleaned. There is no noticeable abrasion or weakness to the paint layer.
"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."

We are grateful to Francesco Petrucci and Dario Beccarini for, independently, confirming the figure of Flora to be by Maratti, on the basis of photographs.  We are also grateful to Yuri Primarosa, also on the basis of photographs, for identifying the flowers to be by Karel van Vogelaer, one of the floral still life painters who collaborated with Maratti.  Paintings by Maratti depicting the subject of Flora are documented in several old inventories including that of Livio Odescalchi  (1713-14); Francesca Gommi (1711), the artists’s wife; and Marchese Niccolò Maria Pallavicini.¹

The pose of Flora is very close to that of the female figure by Maratti in Still Life with a Woman Picking Grapes in the Her🌜miatge Museu🌱m, St. Petersburg, which is a collaborative work by Maratti and Christian Berentz. 

This painting is accompanied by a copy of a photo-certificate from Wilhelm Suida, date𒈔d Zurich, September 1932, stating this painting to b🌞e a work by Carlo Maratti.

1.  See The Getty Provenance Index Databases, Item 1063, Archival Inventory I-629 (Odescalchi); D.L. Bershad, “The Newly Discovered Testament and Inventories of Carlo Maratti and His Wife Francesca (Gommi),” in Antologia di belli arti, no. 25-26 1985, p. 83; and S. Rudolph, Niccolò Maria Pallavicini, L’ascesa al Tempio della Virtù attraverso il Mecenatismo, Rome 1995, p. 87.