All artworks

Possibly a Portrait of The Virgin Reading, circa 1655 - Signed along the collar: "GVIDO CAGNACCI F"

Guido Cagnacci

Exhibited by Rob Smeets Gallery

Material oil on canvas

Dimensions 66 x 59 cm

Status Vetted

About the Work

The figure is identifiable as the Virgin Mary, suggested by the delicately incised golden halo that emerges only faintly from the dark background. Her poised modesty and the gentle gesture with which she holds an open prayer book, as though momentarily interrupted in her reading, suggest that she may be portrayed as the Virgin Annunciate. Although her garments do not follow the traditional chromatic canon associated with the Virgin, Cagnacci frequently departed from convention—as seen, for instance, in the Madonna and Child (the so-called Madonna of the Rose, private collection, Forlì).

The composition, cropped just above the waist, also aligns this work with other paintings by Cagnacci in similar half-length formats from the same period, such as the Allegory of Vanity and Penitence (Nelson Shanks Collection, Andalusia, USA) and the Rape of Europa (Molinari-Pradelli Collection, Bologna).

Cagnacci’s activity is sparsely documented, in part because he worked predominantly for private patrons. While early in his career he produced several large altarpieces, from around 1645 onward he increasingly turned to smaller devotional subjects such as the present one. Unknown to Pier Giorgio Pasini when he compiled Cagnacci’s catalogue raisonné in 1986, the Virgin Reading has since been unanimously recognised as a mature work by the artist and was included in the monographic exhibitions of 1993 and 2008.

Show moreless

Provenance

Private Collection.

Literature

Literature:
R. B. Simon, F. Dabell, Important Old Master Paintings. Devotion and Delight, exh. cat., (New York, Piero Corsini Inc., Fall 1989), Piero Corsini Inc., New York, pp. 70–75, cat. no. 13, reproduced on p. 74 and, in color, on p. 71 (as A Saint in Meditation);
A. Brogi, in D. Benati, M. Bona Castellotti, eds., Guido Cagnacci, exh. cat., Milan 1993, pp. 144–145, cat. no. 32, reproduced in color, and on p. 150, under cat. no. 35;
A. Brogi, in D.Benati, A. Paolucci, eds., Guido Cagnacci. A Protagonist of the Seventeenth Century between Caravaggio and Reni, exh. cat., Forlì, Musei San Domenico, January 20 – June 22, 2008), Cinisello Balsamo 2008, p. 298, cat. no. 75, reproduced in color;
L. Muti, in D. de Sarno Prignano, with the collaboration of G. Milantoni, Guido Cagnacci, Hypóstasis, Faenza 2009, pp. 392–394, cat. no. 53, reproduced on p. 393, and a detail on p. 394.

Exhibitions:
New York, Piero Corsini Inc., Important Old Master Paintings. Devotion and Delight,
Autumn 1989, no. 13;
Rimini, Museo della Città, Guido Cagnacci, August 21 – November 28, 1993, no. 32;
Forlì, Musei San Domenico, Guido Cagnacci. A Protagonist of the Seventeenth Century between Caravaggio and Reni, January 20 – June 22, 2008, no. 75.