(Bologna 1575–1642)
The Madonna in Prayer,
oil on canvas, 90.5 x 72.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Italo Fiumicelli, Bologna, 1980s;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
S. Pepper, Guido Reni’s practice of repeating compositions, in: Artibus et historiae, Vienna 1999, vol. 39, p. 39, illustrated p. 44 fig. 21 (as Guido Reni)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 55878 (as Guido Reni).

We are grateful to Daniele Benati for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph.

The Madonna is represented half length with her gaze turned heavenward and her hands crossed over her heart as if in a moment of prayer.

This composition by Guido Reni was celebrated and it relates to other versions of the subject (see S. Pepper, Guido Reni. L’opera completa, Novara 1988, p. 300) including one formerly in a Roman private collection (Dorotheum 13 October 2010, lot 323) and the other conserved in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 795) prominently featured in Johan Zoffany’s famous view painting of The Tribuna of the Uffizi (1772-1778). Guido Reni’s studio also contributed to the diffusion of the composition and engravings that were made after it (see R. E. Spear, The Divine Guido: Religion, Sex, Money and Art in the World of Guido Reni, New Haven 1997, p. 69). Among these, one engraving by Domenico Cunego dated 1776 bears the inscription ‘Mater amabilis, ex tabula in aedibus Bolognetti’ which refers to a lost canvas that belonged in the Bolognetti collection in Bologna.

Federico Zeri proposed a date of circa 1635 to 1640 for the present painting, based on the soft, light quality of the brushstrokes which characterise paintings from Guido Reni’s mature period. Indeed, during his final years, Reni’s style became confident and fluid and rapid (see C. Malvasia, Felsina pittrice. Vite de’ pittori bolognesi, Bologna 1678).

Guido Reni, called the ‘divine’, was born in Bologna in 1575 where he studied with Denijs Calvaert and frequented the Accademia degli Incamminati founded by the Carracci. He moved to Rome in 1600 where he attained the greatest acclaim and became one of the most successful and celebrated painters of seventeenth century Italy.