Lot 3: GIOVAN BATTISTA BOLOGNINI (attr.) The Suicide of Lucretia

GIOVAN BATTISTA BOLOGNINI (attr.)
The Suicide of Lucretia
Oil on copper
This painting, of outstanding quality, is a copy of a well-known prototype of which two versions are known, one in the Neus Palais in Potsdam and the other in the Galleria Spada in Rome. The original canvas is imposing in terms of its size (235 x 150 cm in the Rome version; 215 x 151 cm in the Potsdam version) yet it is reproduced in our small oil on copper with a sharp and meticulous rendering of detail. It also faithfully reflects the master’s composition, with only a few minor variations, in the fall of the drapery and in the silky cloth unveiling the scene like a theatre curtain in the top left-hand corner of the painting.
We propose attributing this oil on copper to Giovan Battista Bolognini, a well-known pupil and copyist of Guido Reni, whose known works display a deep familiarity with his master’s style, although he frequently interprets that style with more vibrant and fraying brushwork. It is worth comparing this piece with the figure of St. Ubald the Bishop in the church of San Pietro al Monte in Bologna, or with the Immaculate Conception and Saints in the college of San Luigi, also in Bologna, both of which combine an extremely skilled imitation of Reni’s work with a distinctive personality of their own (see Nicosetta Roio, Giovanni Battista Bolognini, in La Scuola di Guido Reni, edited by E.Negro and M.Pirondini, Modena 1992, pp. 33–44, plates 14, 20; interestingly, Roio mentions in her book the existence of a copy of the Suicide of Lucretia in a private collection in Rome, although she publishes no photographs of it and fails to mention either its dimensions or the painting technique used).
31.5 x 21 cm

31.5 x 21 cm

Oil on copper