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Pope Clement VIII and Paul V, of Cardinals Borghese, Sfondrato and Sannesi, and the poet, G.B. Marino. At
the other end of his career Malvasia ment­ions a portrait of Cardinal Sacchetti, Papal Legate from 1637-40, and
therefore probably painted at that time. Thus, according to Malvasia Reni’s activity as a portraitist would seem
to span his entire career. It is the purpose of this catalogue entry to propose and outline additions to his activity
as originally proposed by Pepper in 1993, specifically from the early Roman period.

M alvasia informs us that Reni was engaged in portrait activity during his time in Rome. A remark
concerning an otherwise totally obscure Bolognese artist and por­trait specialist, named Antonio
Scalvati sheds further light. Ugugieri-Azzolini, the Sienese writer, recounts that when Francesco
Vanni arrived in Rome he made friends with Scalvati,9 under whose tutelage Guido Reni was then to be found.
Scalvati at this time was famous for his successful portrait of Clement VIII, who otherwise resisted having his
portrait painted.10 Vanni’s arrival in Rome can be pinned down to 1603. Hence, we may reconstruct the origin
of Reni’s Roman portrait activity to this time, commencing in the very last years of Clement’s reign. During this
very period it seems probable that Reni received instruction from his country-man, Scalvati, in the then accepted
manner of Roman ecclesiastical por­traiture. Vanni was called to Rome by Cardinal Sfondrato only in 1603 to
execute an altarpiece for Saint Peter’s. He was created Cavaliere di Cristo on 25 June 1603 at the request of
Cardinal Sfondrato (‘Avviso’, published by E. Rossi, Roma, 14, 1936, p. 61). Otherwise, he is recorded in
Siena. As further evidence of the connections among Reni, Vanni and Sfondrato, it should be noted that there
has come to light a bust length Saint Catherine by Vanni (London, formerly Trafalgar Gallery), based on Reni’s

9 I. Ugugeri-Azzolini, Le pompe Sanesi, Pistoia, II, 1649, XXXIII, p. 370: ‘Arrivato (Vanni) a Roma fece amicizia con Antonio Scalvati,
pittor Bolognese, sotto la cui disciplina trovò Guido Reni…’. The Sienese author seems to have known Vanni, who himself was
personally acquainted with Reni at this time.

10 Baglione wrote the life of Scalvati (G. Baglione, Le vite dei pittori…, Rome, 1642, facsimile ed. 1935, p. 172), in which he
noted, ‘Indi si diede a far ritratti, ed in particolare quello di Papa Clemente Ottavo, che da (lui rispetto a gli altri) fu molto simile rapportato
& espresso. Ed era difficilissimo il farlo cosi rassomiglante: poichè il Pontefice non volle mai in presenza esser ritratto….’. This painting is
in the Villa Aldobrandini, Frascati.

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