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This painting is closely related to another work by Honthors, a vertical version of the same theme in a private collection. Since some of the same expressive devices are found in both pictures - for example , the way in which the extended hand of the standing mocker holding a candle casts its shadow on his face - both were likely to have been executed relatively close in time.
The size of the canvas suggests that it was a public commisssion, perhaps for a church in or near Rome.
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