We thank Professor Riccardo Lattuada for confirming this attribution after viewing the work live. The scholar refers the painting to the painter's Sicilian period, between 1640 and 1650.
The work, unpublished and of great visual impact, finds a compelling comparison with the one preserved in Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle (B. Nicolson, < i>Caravaggism in Europe, Turin 1990, cat. 1526) and with that preserved in a private collection (ibidem, cat. 1521).
The subject, of ambiguous identification, would seem refer to the culture of the Utrecht school, in which everyday themes and naturalistic depictions were disguised as classical and literary iconography, with a satirical and parodic intent. In this case a portrait of an elderly woman, rendered with brutal realism in her merciless old age, is enriched by iconographic attributes (the urn, the wooden wand) which suggest an identification with the mythical Artemisia, wife of Mausolus.