Saint Francis Adoring a Crucifix

Artist Guido Reni (Italian (Bolognese), 1575 - 1642)

Date1631-1632

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 32 1/4 x 27 7/8 inches (81.92 x 70.79 cm)
Framed: 44 1/2 x 39 1/2 x 2 inches (113.03 x 100.33 x 5.08 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the bequest of Katherine Kupper Mosher

Object numberF86-32

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionA half-length, tonsured man faces to the right, his head in near profile. He is bearded and wears a grayish beige habit and cowl. His hands are crossed over his chest. He gazes at a crucifix of which the figure of Christ, painted in a cream color with reddish highlights, is mounted on a brown wood cross. The crucifix is mounted on a rocky shelf that continues up the right third on the painting. Draped on the shelf is a rosary with a pendant cross. Yellowish light streams down at a diagonal from the upper left corner.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Baroque III: 1620-1700, Matthiesen Fine Art, London, June 13-August 15, 1986, no. 4.

A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977-1987, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 14-December 6, 1987, no. 67.

Guido Reni, 1575- 1642, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, September 5-November 13, 1988, no. 60; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 11,1988- February 12, 1989, no. 48; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, March 11-May 14, 1989, unnumbered.

Strozzi's "St. Francis in Ecstasy": An Acquisition in Focus, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, May 12-July 12, 1998.

Gallery Label

Guido Reni's religious works were regarded by his 17th-century Italian contemporaries as the perfect way to represent devotion to the Christian faith, combining, as in this case, sincerity of feeling with sweetness and grace. Saint Francis is often shown with his hands marked by the nail wounds suffered by Christ on the Cross, but here they are absent. The intensity of his devotion is nevertheless emphasized by the image of Christ on the Cross, which seems almost alive and, like the saint, bathed in a silvery, supernatural light.

Provenance

Conte Segni, Bologna, by 1678;

Senatore Conte Ludovico Segni, Strada Maggiore, Bologna, by 1769;

Conte Cav. Avvocato Luigi Salina (1762-1845), Casa Salina (formerly Casa Alamandini), Bologna, by 1841;

Probably by descent to his son, Conte Camillo Salina (1792-1855), Bologna, by 1855;

Private collection, London, by 1984-1986;

With Orbis Pictus S. A., Chiasso, Switzerland, 1986;

Purchased from Orbis Pictus S. A. through Matthiesen Fine Art, London, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1986.

Published References

Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina pittrice, vite de pittori bolognesi, vol. 2, ed. G. P. Zanotti (1678; repr. Bologna, 1841), 63.

Marcello Oretti, “Le pitture che si vedono nelle Case e Palazzi de Nobili della Città di Bologna,” [ca. 1769], Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, Bologna, Ms. B. 104, II, p. 114.

[G. Giordani], Catalogo de’quadri di varie scuole pittoriche raccolte per una galleria particolare in Bologna, Via Barberia nel Palazzo segnato N. 529 (Bologna: Tipi Fava e Garagnani, 1865), 18.

Carlo Cesare Malvasia, The Life of Guido Reni, trans. Catherine Enggass and Robert Enggass (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980), 146.

Emilia Calbi and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian, eds., Marcello Oretti e il patrimonio artistico privato bolognese: Bologna, Biblioteca Communal, Ms. B. 104 (Bologna, 1984), 163.

D. Stephen Pepper, Guido Reni: A Complete Catalogue of His Works with an Introductory Text (New York: New York University Press, 1984), no. 141, p. 268, (repro.).

Baroque III: 1620-1700, exh. cat. (London: Matthiesen Fine Art, 1986), 45-47, (repro.).

Nicholas Turner, “Exhibition Reviews: London, Baroque Paintings,” Burlington Magazine 128, no. 1001 (1986): 618.

Midwest Art History Society Newsletter, no. 14A (Spring 1987): 4, (repro.).

Roger Ward, ed., A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977-1987, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1987), 154-155, (repro.).

“Museum Acquires Italian Paintings,” Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (January 1988): 2-3, (repro.).

Angelo Mazza et al., Guido Reni, 1575-1642, exh. cat. (Bologna: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1988), 144-145, (repro.)

Angelo Mazza et al., Guido Reni, 1575-1642, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988), 282-283, (repro.).

Stephen Pepper, Guido Reni: L’Opera Completa (Novara: Istituto Geografico de Agostini, 1988), no. 132, p. 276, (repro.).

Robert B. Simon, Important Old Master Paintings, exh. cat. (New York: Piero Corsini, 1989), 78, (repro.).

Roger Ward, “Selected Acquisitions of European and American Paintings at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 1986-1990,” Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1055 (February 1991): 153, 154, 156, (repro.).

Fifty Paintings, 1535-1825, to celebrate Ten Years of collaboration between The Matthiesen Gallery, London, and Stair Sainty Matthiesen, New York, exh. cat. (London: Matthiesen Fine Art, 1993), 172.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 165, (repro.).

Carlotta Cattaneo Adorno et al., Il Palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini (Bologna: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1995), 262-63, (repro.).

Eliot W. Rowlands, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Italian Paintings, 1300-1800 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 21, 219, 221, 272-280, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.