Page 59 - GUIDO RENI 2017
P. 59

of a Borghese cardinal are to be dated

to c. 1608 they surely cannot be of

Camillo who became pope in 1605.

Although both Camillo and Scipione

closely resemble each other there are

differences in their physiognomy and

hair styles and these can most easily

be observed when looking at the

portrait busts executed by Bernini at   ©Albertina

a later date and also when comparing                Fig. 6c. Vienna, Albertina Inv. No.  Fig. 6d. Anonymous, Paul V,
two drawings. The first drawing in                  25373                                Vatican Library.

the Morgan Library, New York, is of

Camillo and is attributed to Leone Leoni who died in 1590 (Fig. 7a). The resemblance to the Reni portrait is

striking and clearly they are of the same sitter. Both the beard and moustache are identical with the Reni portrait

as also is the piercing look and the straight set almost pursed lips and close cropped fringe. The second drawing by

Gian Lorenzo Bernini is in the Villa Borghese, Rome and represents a profile of Scipione Borghese whose face is

a little less ‘chubby’ and rounded (Fig. 7b) even if one makes allowance for the age difference due to the date of

execution. It would appear that Camillo retained his style of moustache and beard extending along the jaw bone

and his close cropped hair over a long period and the same applies to Scipione whose cheeks were clean shaven.

     have to be after Annibale’s. engraving. If of Camillo he appears notably older than in the Leone drawing, the Reni portrait
     discussed here and the portrait traditionally attributed to Caravaggio which is usually also dated c. 1605. Indeed the profiles
     seem closer to a portrait of Paul V in the Vatican Library which is generally dated after the foundation of the Vatican Secret
     Archives in 1610 and more probably closer to 1615. By the time of this latter portrait Camillo has shaved is jaw emulating
     Scipione probably because his beard had turned white (Fig. 6d). Thus the BM drawing may date c. 1610. Equally this
     conundrum raises the question as to whether the drawing given to Leone who died in 1590 is in fact by him bearing in mind
     the 11-13 year interval with the Reni portrait where the sitter’s mien is so similar or indeed whether the painting attributed
     to Caravaggio could possibly be by Leone as some have proposed.
	 As to Agostino’s dates in Rome these are extremely uncertain. G.Briganti in ‘Esplorazione ravvicinata della volta Farnese’,
     in Les Carraches et les decors profanes, École Francaise de Rome, 1988, pp.68-70,limits Agostino’s activity at the Galleria Farnese
     to 1599, Agostino may have made an earlier trip to Rome c. 1596-7 at which time he could have executed the engraving after
     Annibale’s Caprarola Christ. For the time being this seems to be the most plausable explanation.
25	 Johnston Ms. 07 October 2016, ‘The pen drawing with portrait heads of Camillo you sent is certainly not by Guido, either
     recto or verso despite what Aidan and Rachel McGarry have to say as quoted in the BM on line entry. I would really not like

                                                    59
   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64