(Bologna 1575–1642)
Ascension,
oil on canvas, 58,5 x 45,5 cm, framed

The present painting is indebted to Guido Reni’s Christ on the Mount of Olives (Sens, Musée de Sens), created ca. 1607. This date itself serves as a terminus post quem in dating the painting at hand, by a painter belonging to Reni’s circle. Engraving based on Reni’s painting, which is mentioned by Malvasia to have been in the collection of cardinal Mazarin, most probably allowed the dissemination of this successful composition. This does not rule out the influence a painting with the same theme, mentioned by Marcello Oretti (M. Oretti, Le Pitture nelli Palazzi e case di Villa nel territorio bolognese, Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, Ms B 126, IV, c. 262) at the Bonduri residence in Verona, may have had on the composition. The success of this prototype, and its popularity among contemporaries, is supported by additional versions, two of which were in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection in Paris, one in the New York art market, while another is part of the epitaph of the founder of the Descalzas Reales nunnery in Madrid (cf. S. Pepper, Guido Reni, Oxford 1984, p 226–227, No. 27, plate XXVI).

The present painting is indebted to Guido Reni’s Christ on the Mount of Olives (Sens, Musée de Sens) created ca. 1607. This date in turn serves as a terminus post quem in dating the painting at hand, by a painter belonging to Reni’s circle. Engraving