Arcadia Discussion Zone

I saw this painting on ebay several years ago - I was outbid, unfortunately, but kept copies of the images and tried for myself to do some research on it. Cannot remember what it sold for, I stopped bidding at around $500. I corresponded with the person who bought it, asking her to let me know what the expert opinion was if she ended up having it evaluated professionally. She bought it because her little girl liked it, supposedly. Sounded odd to me. I never heard back from her.

I always thought it might be some lost Renaissance piece - maybe an associate or student of a known artist. It appears to be much older (maybe 1500's) than the description stated (1800's). Neither the seller or the eventual buyer seemed to even know it was depicting MM.

Occasionally when I have too much free time - which is not very often - I go back and try to see if I can discover anything new about it. I found a Lorenzo Lotto St. Catherine painting which is very similar, as well as some others...

The seal on the back is unusual - maybe masonic? Would love to know what everyone here thinks. Maybe there are some art experts here on the board? Anyway since it is MM, thought it might be at least a little interesting to the members here. I am sorry, I could not get linked image to show up properly in this post, so to view it, use the following link...

http://web.mac.com/lizbathrick/Site/mmPtg.html

Thanks

It is remarkably similar to the Lotto painting. It's unlikely to be older than the stated date though. I'm sure they would have capitalized on any possibility of it being older, though I suppose the owner might simply not have been very smart. Nice painting though.