This painting must originally have served as an altarpiece, but nothing is known of its history prior to its appearance in a 1771 inventory of Lord Clive’s collection at Powis Castle. The children portrayed have traditionally been identified as members of the Cornaro family, but while the boys appear from their dress to be of Venetian patrician rank, the girls are suspiciously similar in age to be sisters, and could, alternatively, be a group of orphans Although previously attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto himself, the picture appears to be largely painted by a studio assistant, possibly Jacopo’s son Domenico.