St. Francis Praying to the Crucifix

The Expertise

An important testimony of the period of Reni’s early maturity is represented in the Collection by this painting, ascribed to him by Stephen Pepper, his ultimate modern biographer, who recalls other similar versions certainly painted by the Master since the subject matter was very popular and beautiful. It is a canvas inspired by the style and iconography of the Carracci brothers, that emphasizes some constant features of Guido Reni’s art, that is the delicacy of feelings, the softness, the pictorial texture, the intimacy, the depth and concentration of the pictorial space in, as we noted, both sacred and profane settings. One senses in this work Reni’s complex training, indebted also to the delicate stylistic handling of the Flemish Calvaert, to whom he was apprentice in Bologna in his early youth. But all the influences are left behind in a work like this, with an emotional afflatus that makes Reni incomparable to any other Master of his time.