This small picture depicts the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ, with the infant John the Baptist and his mother, St Elizabeth. To the left, in profile, behind Mary, is St Joseph, while the bearded man, standing to the right of centre, is presumably Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah. The loose handling and sketch-like qualities suggests that this is a modello for a larger composition. Cole stated that the picture was ‘by Carlo Maratti, similar to the one in the Gallery of Versailles’. Stylistically it would appear to be by an Italian artist of the seventeenth century, in the circle of the Italian artist Carlo Maratta (1625–1713).