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may have employed up to eighty people so that a ‘manager’ was essential. In this capacity Belcollare was the
second, following on from Rogone and preceding a man known simply as ‘Alessandro’. The last person to serve
in this role was Marco Bandinelli whom Reni trusted in all things, even in the handling of his finances. Belcollare,
then, wielded considerable influence and the authority to negotiate price, a task Guido himself abhorred, as well
as to deliver the completed works to the client at the time that our St. John the Evangelist was executed.

As set out here in note 2 the output of studio versions and copies was prodigious. Either Reni would retouch
the works himself or he would coach his students through drawings, etchings and exhortation to study his style
in order to ramp up their own output to help settle either Reni’s own gambling debts or their own. Malvasia
recounts several occasions when the studio followers abused their status in passing such works off as originals
and thus incurred the wrath of their master. One only has to consider how many versions one sees on the market
of the famous Magdalen, formerly in the Sciarra/Almagià collection and now in a private collection near St.
Moritz.The original was an ex-Barberini picture and is of sublime quality, but there are versions which come
close and testify to the flourishing market between 1620 and 1642 in ‘Renis’. The present St. John the Evangelist
shows all the qualities of Guido’s very finest autograph works in a format and size much favoured by the artist.
Its preciosity, delicacy of colour contrast and the translucence of the glazes, enhanced by the copper support,
are evidence of the very finest autograph works. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the painting described in
Count Luigi Zambeccari’s inventory after his demise in the Great Plague of 1630 under ‘No. 10’ as ‘Un S.Giovanni
Evangelista del mano del detto [Reni] in rame. The painting may be dated c. 1622-28.

Patrick Matthiesen

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