Studio of Guido Reni

The copperplate is sound, but uneven in the upper right corner due to an old damage which has been repaired. The paint surface has recently been cleaned and restored. There are scattered small local retouchings, the faces are untouched. The picture requires no further attention.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This highly refined copper, preserved in near-perfect condition, reflects a possibly lost composition by Reni, executed early in his career at the behest of Cardinal Borghese as a pendant to a painting depicting the Madonna sewing with three angels.¹ Pepper noted other important early references to works that he considered might relate to the lost painting: one, painted pre-1600, was in the Bolognini collection and another appears in the Aldobrandini inventory of 1603. The extant version most commonly identified as Reni's original, and thus most commonly linked to the Borghese commission, is that in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, but there is no consensus of opinion on its authenticity amongst scholars.² The Louvre painting differs from the present version in the inclusion of a window in the upper right corner and in the cloth in the crib in the lower centre, which in the Paris version is confined to the crib's interior and does not spill over the side as here. Several drawings have been linked with the composition but all are limited to the figure-group itself and do not include any of the differing outer details such as the window or crib, and so it is impossible to argue through them a case for the primacy of either version. Numerous copies of both types, with and without window, are known, attesting to its popularity through the seventeenth century.

1. Formerly with Simon Dickinson, London. Catalogued before its rediscovery by S. Pepper, Guido Reni, Oxford 1984, pp. 219-20, cat. no. 22.
2. Pepper, op. cit., 1984, pp. 218-19, cat. no. 21, reproduced.