S. Pierguidi - Reni and Sfondrati’s early Christian revival of tondi, tables, archaic Raphaelism and devout Caravaggism

Guido Reni’s Roman debut was marked by the execution of three paintings commissioned by Cardinal Paolo Camillo Sfondrati: the Coronation of Saints Cecilia and Valerian, the Beheading of Saint Cecilia, both of which are still in the Chapel of the Bath in the Trastevere Basilica of Santa Cecilia, and a replica of Raphael’s Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia. This is one of the most carefully researched chapters of the Bolognese master’s career, about which many doubts still remain because the chronological sequence of the three works has never been definitively established, nor the place where they were painted (Bologna or Rome?). The article examines once again the problem of dating these paintings, and the circumstances that brought Guido to Rome, in complete autonomy from both Ludovico and Annibale Carracci. It also highlights the visual dialogue that the painter immediately established with Caravaggism, and how the latter, or rather its particular variation in a devout and archaicising key exemplified by Caravaggio’s early emulators, namely Antiveduto Gramatica and Orazio Gentileschi, was an important part of the pictorial language which had its origins in the climate of the early Christian revival encouraged by Sfondrati and Cesare Baronio.

Guido Reni, Camillo Sfondrati cardinal, Raphael, caravaggism