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Fig. 1. G.Reni, Cardinal Bernardino Fig. 2. G. Reni, Pope Gregory XV, 1622, Fig. 3. Cardinal Roberto Ubaldini,
Spada, Rome, Galleria Spada. Corsham Court, Wilts. Los Angeles County Museum.

6 Pepper was of the opinion that the Portrait of an Elderly Widow, in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (Pepper 1984, no.
128), is in fact a portrait of Reni’s mother, who died in 1630, but this identification is by no means certain. For example,
the identification was questioned by Mahon (D. Mahon ‘A New Book on Reni’, review, The Burlington Magazine, 128, 1986,
p. 216). Doubts also exist as to the attribution of the other Portrait of an Elderly Lady, in the Pinacoteca, attributed to Reni
(Pepper 1984, no. 128A, as autograph).

7 The portrait had traditionally been called Paul V (Pepper 1984, no. 82, for its history). Mahon was the first to question the
identification (D. Mahon, ‘Some Afterthoughts on the Seicento at the Royal Academy’, The Burlington Magazine, 93, 1951,
p. 81, ns. 9-12), where he proposed either Gregory XV or Clement VIII as the sitter. Later he accepted the identification
as Gregory (D. Mahon, ‘Guercino as Portraitist and his Pope Gregory XV’, Apollo, 113, 1981, p. 234-235). J. Hess
(‘Bemerkungen zum stil Guido Reni und zum katalog der ausstellung in Bologna’. Zt. Fuer Kunstgeschichte, v.20, 1956,
pp. 188-190) and F. Zeri, La Galleria Pallavincini, Rome, 1959, p. 205, no. 356, independently concluded that the portrait
was of Gregory.

8 G. C. Cavalli proposed a much earlier date for the Portrait of the Woman in Widow’s Dress (Mostra di Guido Reni, exh. Cat.,
Bologna, 1954, no. 12), which was subsequently supported by Mahon (Burlington Magazine, 1986, p. 216).

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