(ANSA) - Rome, November 15 - An exhibition in Rome focuses on
the refined compositions of one of the masters of the 17th
century, the evolution of his mature style, and his influence on
the artists that came after him as well as the story of Italian
commissions and art collecting through two famous families.
The small but valuable show "Guido Reni, i Barberini e i
Corsini. Storia e Fortuna di un Capolavoro" ("Guido Reni, the
Barberinis and the Corsinis. History and Fortune of a
Masterpiece") will be presented by the Gallerie Nazionali di
Arte Antica from November 16 until February 17 at Rome's
Galleria Corsini.
The exhibition project, curated by Stefano Pierguidi includes
15 works and revolves around the 'Vision of Sant'Andrea
Corsini', a masterpiece of Reni's mature period that was
commissioned by the artist in 1629 by the Corsini family on the
occasion of the canonization of the 14th century Florentine
bishop.
The painting, emblematic of 17th century devotion, was
donated - probably by Ottavio Corsini - to Pope Urban VIII
Barberini and was in Palazzo Barberini until 1936, when it went
to the Corsinis in Florence and is now at the Uffizi Galleries.
The exhibition puts the masterpiece alongside another work by
Reni in which he gave a different interpretation to the same
theme with a rarer composition as well as a copy that Agostino
Masucci made in 1732.
Masucci - a painter that it not very well known now but who
was among the most highly estimated ones during the papacy of
Clement XII Corsini between 1730 and 1740 - was commissioned by
the pope to make an enlarged copy of Reni's work that could
serve as a model for the making of a mosaic, a work by Pietro
Paolo Cristofari, to be placed on the altar of the family's
chapel at the San Giovanni in Laterano church.
Requests to make paintings into mosaics was very much in
vogue in the 18th century and Masucci was repeatedly called upon
to produce enlarged versions of paintings to this end.
A second, smaller room shows Reni's skill in experimenting
with different techniques, frescoes and oil paintings, painting
on canvases as well as copper, stone and silk.
"The painting at the center of the show symbolically unites
the Barberinis to the Corsinis. Here the public has the chance
to compare in person an exceptional original, Reni's, to another
copy that is also exceptional, Masucci's," curator Stefano
Pierguidi said.
New show uncovers genius of Guido Reni
Story of a masterpieces highlighted in Rome