Nothing is known about the history of the work before its purchase for the Cariplo Collection. It was published for the first time in the catalogue of 1998 and attributed to Gaspare Venturini, a painter from Ferrara trained in the great workshop that left its imprint on the 16th century as a whole.

In her description, Silvia Cibolini develops a comparison of the painting with the Nativity in the church of the Madonnina in Ferrara, and the similarities between the two works are significant and convincing, including the attention to decoration revealed in details such as the sumptuous drapery, precious brooches and Salome’s hair. It is, however, also the presentation of the scene as a whole that reveals points of contact, like the use of light from an external source that creates such strong chiaroscuro contrasts as to leave minor figures like Salome’s servant in the shadow. The face of Herod’s stepdaughter is repeated in one of the three Graces in the Allegory of Good Government now in the collection of the Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna [1].

Despite having worked alongside the Carracci brothers on the decoration of the Palazzo dei Diamanti, the artist displays fidelity to the local tradition and a style of moderate Mannerism that was to be superseded a few years later by the new developments of the early 17th century.