(Bologna 1583–1640 Rome)
Saint Agatha cured by Saint Peter,
oil on copper, 67 x 57 cm, framed

Provenance:
Sale, Poulain Le Fur, Paris, 30 November 1998, lot 54;
European private collection

We are grateful to Professor Daniele Benati for confirming the attribution of the present painting.

Giovan Giacomo Sementi was first trained by Denys Calvaert and subsequently entered the workshop of Guido Reni. He was greatly influenced by Reni, and they collaborated together on the jointly executed Allegory of Vanity and Moderation (Naples, Museo di Capodimonte). Reni’s influence is also strongly discernible in the present composition, especially in the figure of Saint Agatha, which follows the tradition of Guido Reni’s Madonnas.

The composition is structured by diagonals: one runs from the female figure at the lower right via her outstretched arm to the right arm of Saint Peter, the other leads from the figure viewed from behind in the left lower foreground over the heads of Agatha and Peter to the divine light. The silky garments, are rendered in carefully chosen colours, for example the pale lilac tone of Agatha’s cloak, which is juxtaposed to the light green of the dress of the woman with the child, attest to the artist’s skilful painterly technique. The female saint is bathed in shimmering light, with the miracle of her healing accompanied by angels descending from heaven. The subject matter, which was typical of the Counter-Reformation, fits in with Sementi’s depictions of martyrdoms of female saints, such as those of Saint Catherine and Saint Eugenia, both in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna (see E. Negro and M. Pirondini La Scuola di Guido Reni, Modena 1992 p.319 and p. 320, illustrated).