(Bologna 1610–1670)
Sibyl, oil on canvas, 90 x 71 cm, framed

Provenance: European Private Collection

We are grateful to Dott. Emilio Negro for endorsing the attribution of the present painting to Giovanni Andrea Sirani (written communication).

The present painting’s composition is identical to that of the picture in the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum (91 x 74.5 cm), which was originally believed to be a work by Guido Reni, but was later attributed to Giovanni Andrea Sirani by Sir Denis Mahon (see Maestri della pittura del Seicento emiliano, Bologna 1959, no. 63, p. 143, fig. 63). The painting in the Kunsthistorisches Museum was acquired for the Imperial collections in Rome in 1780 and is datable to shortly after 1640, similar to the painting Rebecca at the Well in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. In the opinion of Ferdinando Bologna (written communication, 14 November 1966), the present work is superior in quality to the Viennese painting (‘una qualità ed una caratteristica di fattura di gran lunga superiori all’esemplare viennese’) and thus has to be assigned to Guido Reni himself (‘opera autografa e del più alto pregio’). Sirani was one of Reni’s most faithful pupils and a skillful draughtsman, as is suggested by the present painting’s confident outlines. The solid three-dimensional modelling and the brilliant colours point to Guido Reni’s works from the 1620s. The Viennese picture, on the other hand, is characterized by a more fluid and synthetic manner that is close to the master’s late style and almost makes an ‘abstract’ impression.

Provenance: European Private Collection We are grateful to Dott. Emilio Negro for endorsing the attribution of the present painting to Giovanni Andrea Sirani (written communication). The present painting’s composition is identical to that of the picture