Madonna del Dito

This small picture on copper, barely 28 centimetres high, has been missing since 1978, when it was stolen from the Galleria Borghese. What remains is the museum's black-and-white photograph, showing it in a 19th-century frame with a rosette in each corner. It is the Virgin of Sorrows, head bowed, wrapped in a heavy mantle, and just below her chin the tip of one finger shows between the folds. That fingertip gave the composition its Italian nickname, the Madonna of the Finger. Dolci painted the composition in 1678, and it was so sought after that other versions are in the Uffizi in Florence and in the Galleria Corsini. This one is a replica, possibly by his own hand. It was bought in Rome in December 1818 for Prince Camillo Borghese from a Florentine dealer, Ignazio Grossi, together with a Christ by Dolci and two other paintings, 3000 scudi for the lot.