(Bologna 1575–1642)
Madonna in prayer,
oil on canvas, 82 x 65.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Monsignor Giorgio Bolognetti collection, Rome, until at least 1686;
thence by descent to Count Ferdinando Bolognetti, Rome, until at least 1737;
thence by descent to Count Giacomo Alamandini Bolognetti, Rome, until at least 1775;
thence by descent;
Private European collection

Documented:
Inventory of monsignor Giorgio Bolognetti, 1686, Rome, Archivio di Stato, Notai RCA, Astulphus Galoppus, b. 819, c. 90v;
inventory of Ferdinando Bolognetti, 1737, Rome, Archivio di Stato, Notai A.C., Hiacintus Vitalis, b. 7220, c. 657v;
inventory of Giacomo Bolognetti Alamandini, 1775, Rome, Archivio di Stato, Notai A.C., Paleanus, b. 4862

Literature:
M. Vasi, Itinerario istruttivo di Roma o sia Descrizione generale delle opere più insigni di pittura, scultura e architettura e di tutti i monumenti antichi, e moderni di quest’alma città, e parte delle sue adiacenze, Rome 1791, p. 91 (as Guido Reni);
G. De Marchi, Mostre di quadri a S. Salvatore in Lauro (1682–1725): stime di collezioni Romane; note e appunti di Giuseppe Ghezzi, Roma 1987, p. 211 (as Guido Reni);
S. Pepper, Guido Reni. L’opera completa, Novara 1988, p. 300, cited in a note under cat. no. 187;
C. Mazzarelli, Maestri eccellenti, copisti e «quadrari» al servizio di casa Bolognetti nella Roma di Benedetto XIV, in: Studi di Storia dell’Arte, no. 19. 2008, pp. 194–196, fig. 7, pl. XVIII (as Guido Reni)

The present lot belonged to descendants of the Bolognetti family in Rome, until recently. It was recorded in 1686 in the post-mortem inventory of Monsignor Giorgio Bolognetti as ‘una tela di tre e quattro con una Madonna di Guido Reni con una cornice indorata intagliata’. The painting was periodically exhibited in the cloister of San Salvatore in Lauro during the eighteenth century, as recorded in lists compiled by Giuseppe Ghezzi (see literature).

An engraving by Domenico Cunego dated 1776 bears the inscription Mater Amabilis, Ex Tabula in Aedibus Bolognetti, and the painting is cited by several contemporary sources as one of the most valuable in the Bolognetti collection (see literature).

This composition by Guido Reni was widely diffused and other versions include one conserved in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 795), prominently featured in Johan Zoffany’s celebrated painting of The Tribuna of the Uffizi. Guido Reni’s studio contributed to the diffusion of the composition (see R. E. Spear, The Divine Guido: Religion, Sex, Money and Art in the World of Guido Reni, New Haven 1997, p. 69).