Offered by Antichità Castelbarco
Saint Michael Archangel
Workshop/Follower of Guido Reni (Bologna 1575 - 1642)
17th-18th century
Oil on canvas (104 x 68 cm. - In frame 109 x 68 cm.)
This high quality painting is based on the famous St. Michael Archangel by Guido Reni, painted in 1635 for the Capuchin Church in Rome (PICTURE 1), erected by donation of Cardinal Antonio Barberini (1569-1646), brother of Urban VIII.
After intensive training in Bologna, 27-year-old Guido Reni travelled to Rome in 1602, soon becoming a celebrated interpreter of the tastes of the most culturally influential circles, and winning the protection of great personalities such as Popes Paul V, Urban VIII and Scipione Borghese.
The Archangel Michael, engaged here in the fight against Evil, is depicted as a young man of rare beauty, strong and delicate at the same time, who, with his sword drawn, repels to hell an irritated devil, whose head he tramples with his foot. The soft draperies envelop the angel's body with an intense classicism, where a balanced composition directs the viewer's attention to his angelic face.
Great was the recognition and esteem of his contemporaries, and the painting was immediately an incredible success, also due to the controversy it aroused on the part of the Pamphili family, a family that had always been in conflict with the Barberini, who commissioned the canvas.
In fact, Reni, having learnt that Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphili, the future Pope Innocent X, had slandered him, in revenge impersonated the Devil with his own face.
Guido Reni's cunning was to exploit the historical competition between two of the most influential families in seventeenth-century Rome, the Barberini and the Pamphili, for his own personal revenge, while at the same time giving his work sudden celebrity.
Reni tried his hand at executing this subject on several occasions, much appreciated by his patrons, thanks to the characteristics of formal cleanliness and overall balance of the composition that still make it one of the cornerstones of Roman classicism today.
With the help of his workshop, he used to return to the same subjects several times, producing versions of his most successful compositions, which makes it difficult to disentangle between autograph replicas, workshop works, often enriched by his intervention, and copies that became autonomous re-readings by some of his best pupils.
We can affirm that the proposed canvas is the work of an artist from the workshop or a follower of Reni, painted at a time after his death.
Delevery information :
We take care of and organise the transport of the purchased works, both for Italy and abroad, through professional and insured carriers.
We take great care We personally take care of the packaging, to which we devote a great deal of care: each work is carefully packed, first with arti- cle material, then with a custom-made wooden box.
Should you have the desire to see this or other works in person, we would be happy to welcome you to our gallery in Riva del Garda, Viale Giuseppe Canella 18, we are always open by appointment only.
