Guido Reni (1575 - 1642) Saint Francis Oil on canvas 183.2 x 136 cm Attributes: On the reverse, recent label with reference to the work Provenance: Banca Popolare di Asolo e Montebelluna (since 1993); Veneto Banca SpA in LCA Certificates: certificate by Paolo Viancini, s.d.; critical card by Daniele Benati, dated 26 July 2021; critical card by Massimo Pulini, dated 7 August 2021 Conservation status. Support: 80% (reintelo) Conservation status. Surface: 75% (abrasions, splintering, additions and retouches, also on the saint's face) The painting was acquired by Veneto Banca in 1993 and has been kept in the vault ever since. Unpublished, the work has been the subject of extensive critical investigation during the cataloguing process, with the majority of opinion oriented towards recognising it as a masterpiece by Guido Reni. According to Daniele Benati, who has dedicated an in-depth critical file to it and also intends to present the work in a scientific context, "The beautiful painting undoubtedly belongs to Guido Reni, finding immediate comparison with other works of his already known not only for the type of composition, but above all for the supreme refinement of the pictorial conduction, unequalled by any of his pupils, however gifted." The scholar dates the work to "the late 1730s", comparing it to the painting of a similar subject in the Galleria Colonna and to the Pallione della peste of 1631 (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale), and also to the "softening of the drafting that Guido achieves in this work, in line with the progressive "dematerialisation" of the image that animates his entire prolific career", not failing to point out that compared to "the known versions, the attitude with which the saint is portrayed also points in the direction of greater psychological introspection: his mute and sorrowful conversation with the Crucifix is in fact something different from the emphasis with which, in the paintings of the Girolamini and the Louvre, he impetuously turns his gaze to heaven, bringing his right hand to his chest. From this point of view, the solution proposed in the painting under examination appears more convincing even than the Colonna version, which can be partly attributed to the helpers, in which the saint twists his hands, repeating to the letter the invention already used in the Pallion of the Plague, where it appeared all the more necessary in relation to the theme proposed by the great painting.". (... read more: complete card in the pdf catalogue at the link https://goforarts.com/doc/VB_IT_2_2/Meraviglie_Atto_II_HR.pdf . The catalogue also includes lots that are not available on online platforms, including many of the most prestigious).