Page 34 - GUIDO RENI 2017

as a work of Agostino ‘Nell’ ore appunto di

quiete e di consolazione, stanchi dal lavoro nella

sala de’ signori Favi, opero per svariarsi e pender

lena Agostino qu’ paesi toccati di sopra, ov’e

un ballo di villani, e i piferi sul palco in uno,

e nell’altro quella caricatura del cappellaccio,

comprati dal Grato, poi venduto dallo stesso

cento venti doble a Monsù della Frè scudiero del
Re Cristianisimo...’ (Malvasia, I, p.324)10.

The earliest record of the Marseille picture

Fig. 11. A. Carracci, Louvre, Inventaire italien, t. VII Q718. is in the Loménie de Brienne collection in
1662, but this would be compatible with

the Bolognese dealer Cesari Grati having

bought it and mentioning it to Malvasia.

There are striking similarities between our

Country Dance and the Marseille picture but

there are also notable differences. Whereas

the Reni appears rural and Arcadian, the

Carracci has the feeling of a courtly country

fête with a country orchestra and a dwarf

who, grasping a chamberlain’s rod, appears

Fig. 12a. A.Carracci, St John, Fig. 12b. Guido Reni, Country as the master of ceremonies pointing to the
ex Mahon Coll., detail. Dance, detail. dancing couple. The whole scene takes
place in front of a fountain representing

Pan, whose home was in Arcadia and who symbolised both spring and rebirth. A figure kneels before the fountain

filling a boraccia, just as a similar figure in the Reni, also on the right, fills his receptacle in the stream. The

aristocratic, beautifully attired central female figure in the Reni, looking out towards the viewer, is taken directly

from the Marseille picture, as is her partner’s gesture of gripping his hat in his left hand. Yet the male partner in

10. C. Whitfield, ‘The landscapes of Agostino Carracci : reflexions on his role in the Carracci school’, Actes du colloque de Rome,
2-4 Octobre 1986, pp.79-80. Curious that Malvasia refers to commoners (villani) when most of the staffage appears dressed
as aristocrats.

34