The provenance

An inscription once present on the original frame – today lost but documented photographically – allows for the reconstruction of the patronage: the painting was commissioned by the notary Giovanni Borgarucci for the church of San Michele in Bolognola. In his will of 1425, Borgarucci ordered the creation of a chapel dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, thus linking the work to a specific devotional and family context.

In 1855, Don Francesco Maurizi, the parish priest of the church, decided, with the approval of the Municipality of Bolognola, to sell it to a certain Fratelloni of Camerino, a gilder and carver. This alienation was not well-received by the Curia of Camerino, as in 1857 the archiepiscopal chancery instituted a trial against the parish priest for the improper transfer of the work.

In 1868, following a resolution by the City Council of Bolognola, the panel was transferred to Count Augusto Caccialupi of Macerata, but already two years later it does not appear included in the catalogue of the count's collection compiled by Marquis Filippo Raffaelli. It is presumed that the work passed, together with other pieces of Caccialupi, into the collection of Reverend Robert J. Nevin in Rome already before 1890 and certainly before 1906, when it was illustrated by Bernardino Feliciangeli as a work of Florentine circles kept in Rome.

The following year, the altarpiece went to auction along with the rest of the Nevin collection, being purchased for 3,600 francs by George Washington Wurts, as read in a list sent by Wurts to the art historian Bernard Berenson. It was donated in 1933 by Wurts' widow, Henriette Tower, to the Italian State and destined for the Museum of Palazzo Venezia.