Guido Reni

With Kate Ganz, London, Master Drawings, 1989, no. 12, reproduced

Frankfurt, Shirn Kunsthalle, Guido Reni und Europa, Ruhm und Nachruhm, 1988-89, p. 310, no. B22, reproduced

D. Detholff, ed., Drawing: Masters and Methods. Raphael to Redon, London 1992, p. 142, fig. 12

Hinged to the mount at the upper margin. Overall condition is good. There is a crease in the paper at the upper left margin. There is a small tear towards the lower right corner. The medium remains fresh.
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These are studies for the hands and drapery of the Virgin Mary in Reni's Crucifixion, painted in 1617-18 for the Capuchin church just outside Bologna and now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.¹  It is one of the artist's most admired early works.  Two other preparatory studies for the figure of the Virgin are known, one in a German private collection and one at Capodimonte, Naples, but this study shows her hands in positions closest to the final painting.² 

1.  D. Stephen Pepper, Guido Reni, A Complete Catalogue of his Works, Oxford 1984, no. 55, p. 234, reproduced pl. 82
2.  Veronika Birke, Guido Reni Zeichnungen, exhib. cat., Vienna, Albertina 1981, p. 95, figs. 22, 23