Guido Reni
(Bologna 1575 – 1642)
Portrait of the Cardinal Bernardino Spada
Oil on canvas, cm 222×147
A rare example of Guido Reni’s portrait production, the painting was executed in Bologna between 1630 and 1631, when Cardinal Bernardino held the position of papal legate in the Emilian city.
An absolute apex of psychological introspection, this masterpiece of seventeenth-century Italian painting restores the nobility, intellectual finesse and spirituality of the Cardinal, shown inside his study in the act of writing a missive to the pope, as indicated by the inscription “Beatus Padre” that appears on the paper; behind him is the archive containing the cardinal’s correspondence, a solution that transports us both into the official world and into the more intimate world of the person portrayed.
Guido Reni’s masterful ability to render the naturalness of things, while at the same time divinizing them, is evident here both in the figure and in the details of the environment and clothing: the exquisite rose hue of the cardinal’s robes, embellished by the lace of the very white surplice, has a tactile quality that the work’s perfect state of preservation fully enhances.
