On the back (now separated and framed) there was a writing in ink on paper that refers the painting to the painter Bartolomeo Sotti or Scotis: "Die Quinta Septembris 1755 / Pictura haec performed fuit mihi to D. Baratolomeo de Scotis / Provinciae Mediolanensis egregio Pictore, et haec effigies / assimilatur, et ab ipsa est desumpta illa Pictura, quae suspicitur / in Tempio S. Stephani Nozzae in prima Campo ip [..] Cav [..] ide [..] hic adnotare [..] ad keep memory / bc Dei Laud [..], hec not [..] Jovis Bapt Xti [..] / [..] devotion. Jones Bapt Zanni / LLDD scripsi / dia ac anno [..] ".
On the reverse, in the frame, inscription in ink: "Sketch belonging to S. Gio [..] / taken from a fresco in Nezza (?) from the [..] Milanese". Expertise by Giluiano Briganti on headed paper, dated April 19, 1977. Bibliography: 1986, M. Bona Castellotti, Lombard Painting of the '700, Milan, p. 558