STUDIO OF GUIDO RENI | MADONNA DELLE NEVE, WITH ST. LUCY AND ST. MARY MAGDALENE

This copper repeats the composition of Guido's large altarpiece of the same subject, completed in 1623 for Santa Maria Corteorlandini (Santa Maria Nera) in Lucca and now in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. 3394). Smaller and highly finished, the present lot functioned as a ricordo of the altarpiece and was probably made in Guido's studio for one of the altar's patrons, Lucchese merchant Giuliano Miccoti or Giulio Franciotti [1]. Guido had learned to paint on copper from his Flemish master, Denys Calvaert, and he had early success with the medium, though his use of copper declined after 1614. The small size and finished surface made private devotional works on copper popular among Guido's patrons.

1. See S. Pepper, Guido Reni, Oxford 1984, p. 295, under cat. no. B5.