The article focuses on the discovery of the unpublished canvas representing the 'Virgin and Child with Saints Galgano and Nicholas of Bari' executed by the Florentine painter Anton Domenico Gabbiani (Florence, 1652-1726), recently restored by the Soprintendenza Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Siena e Grosseto. Invaluable information contained in the Vita di Anton Domenico Gabbiani pittor fiorentino and in the Raccolta di cento pensieri diversi di Anton Domenico Gabbiani pittor fiorentino, published in 1762 by one of the painter's pupils, Ignazio Enrico Hugford (Florence, 1703-1778), has allowed us to retrace the canvas's preparatory
drawing kept in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe degli Uffizi in Florence, which was faithfully copied from an engraving by Johann Adam Schweickart (Nuremburg, 1722-1787).
The Vita written by Hugford also contains information associated with the commissioning of the painting, which had originally been ordered by Cardinal Francesco Maria de' Medici (Florence, 1660-1711) for the Abbey of San Galgano, near Chiusdino, in the province of Siena. Given away by the heirs of Abbot Giuseppe Maria Feroni (Florence, 1693-1767) toward the end of the XVIIIth century, the painting was, until recent times, forgotten about in the Romanesque church of San Michele Arcangelo at Frosini near Chiusdino. The painting is datable to the final years of the XVIIth century, this being borne out by the convincing stylistic similarities with a canvas representing 'Saint Louis of France between Saint Francis of Paola and Saint Elisabeth of Portugal', completed in 1697 for the church of the Holy Saviour of the Friars Minor in Pietrasanta, in the province of Lucca.