Giovan Francesco Gessi (1588 - 1649) Lot n° 15

Giovan Francesco Gessi (1588 - 1649) Saint John the Baptist Oil on canvas 58 x 66 cm Provenance: Christie's London, 11/13/1997, lot 222 (as Cerchia di Guido Reni) Conservation status. Support: Conservation status. Surface: The attribution to the maturity of Giovan Francesco Gessi was made by Denis Mahon and Stephen Pepper, after seeing the painting at the Giantomassi and Zari restoration studio. The painting is related to some of Guido Reni's works of 1621-1623, and in particular the definition of the body of Christ in the altarpiece with Christ Appearing to the Madonna executed for Modena Cathedral in 1622 (Baccheschi 1971, card 109) and in the Baptism of Christ, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (ibid., card 115) Reference bibliography: Cesare Garboli, introduction by, and Edi Baccheschi, apparatus of, "The Complete Works of Guido Reni," Milan, 1971