STUDIO OF GUIDO RENI | LUCRETIA

Possibly, with Guidi Gallery, Florence;

Possibly, purchased in Italy c. 1832 by Rev. John Sanford (1777-1855), Connaught Place, London;

Possibly, by whom sold, London, Christie's, 9 March 1839, lot 78 (11.11 to John Lewis Rutley);

Private collection, New York, as of 1984 (see Pepper in Literature);

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 12 January 1996, lot 110 (as Guido Reni; withdrawn).

Possibly, B. Nicolson, "The Sanford Collection," The Burlington Magazine 97, no. 628 (July 1955), p. 213, no. 39, reproduced fig. 41 (as a copy of a lost original);

Possibly, H. Hibbard, Guido Reni's Corsini Magdalen: Its date and Influence, In Memorium, Otto J. Brendel, 1976, p. 229, no. 11 (the Sanford picture);

D.S. Pepper, Guido Reni: a complete catalogue of his works, Oxford 1984, p. 247, no. 89, reproduced pl. 113 (as by Guido Reni, datable to 1622-3); 2nd. ed. 1988, p. 277, no. 134, reproduced pl. 125 (as by Guido Reni, datable to 1632.

"Although his biographer Malvasia makes much of the artist’s discomfiture around women, Guido Reni created heroic and idealized images of his female protagonists which were prized by his contemporaries and influenced generations of later artists. His Atalantas, Cleopatras and Artemisias are as fearless as his Virgins and Saints are divinely serene. This depiction of Lucretia is one of of his great successes of this type, and likely inspired a poem by the Bolognese aristocrat Ulisse Bentivoglio. This version of the composition is one of the best to survive, painted with elegant and fluttering brushstrokes. In a grand Roman frame, it is worthy of a Roman palazzo, which is where it is first recorded."

Christopher Apostle

This beautifully preserved painting is a version of one of Guido Reni’s most popular compositions. The prime was probably painted while Guido was in Rome in 1621, around the same time he painted the portrait of Pope Gregory XV. Lucretia is a figure from Roman history and thus a popular subject among Roman patrons. The back of the original canvas was recorded as bearing the inscription “Lucrece/Guido Reni/P. Altieri’. Such a work is recorded in the Palazzo Altieri in the 17th century. Cardinal Altieri probably received the painting as a gift or otherwise acquired it when he became Pope Clement X in 1670. A version of this composition, perhaps identical to the present work, was in the collection of John Sanford, purchased in Italy between 1830 and 1832 (Nicolson); it was said to come from the Guidi Gallery, and was sold at Christie’s in 1839.