Saint Cecilia
1606
Guido Reni (Italian, 1575-1642)
On View

Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, was venerated for her chastity. According to legend, on the day of her forced marriage to a pagan, Cecilia used the cadence of wedding music to sing to God in her heart. Seventeenth-century representations often visualize this private melody by depicting Cecilia as a musician. In this painting by Guido Reni, she holds a violin in an unusual position—balanced on a table rather than cradled against her shoulder or chest—though the careful placement of her fingers suggests knowledge of the instrument. Cecilia’s upturned eyes guide her music heavenward. In the saint’s dedicated church in Rome, devotees used this painting for meditation, imagining Cecilia’s devout song, perhaps mingled with audible music filling the church around them.

Details

  • Artist Name: Guido Reni (Italian, 1575-1642)
  • Title: Saint Cecilia
  • Date: 1606
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 37-3/4 x 29-1/2 in. (95.9 x 74.9 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
  • Accession Number: F.1973.23.P
  • Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation

Object Information

Commissioned by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, Rome, 1606, sold 1608 to;
Cardinal Borghese Caffarelli, Scipione, by descent to heirs;
Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino (1775-1840), Rome, by 1812, ceded in 1820 to;
Maria Louisa Josephine, Duchess of Lucca (Queen of Etruria), by inheritance to her son Carlo Lodovico di Borbone, Duke of Lucca; 1824-1840, brought to London for sale in 1840;
Marquess of Lansdowne (1854-1952), Lansdowne House, Bowood, Wiltshire, as Domenichino.
[David M. Koester, New York].
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York, by 1962.
Robert Manning, New York, sold 29 May 1970 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, sold to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.

Baroque Painters of Bologna and Neighboring Cities: A Loan Exhibition

  • New York, Finch College, Museum of Art, 1962-02-27 to 1962-04-08

1550-1650: A Century of Masters from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

  • Fort Worth Art Museum, 1962-09-07 to 1962-11-04
  • Tulsa, Philbrook Arts Center, 1962-12-04 to 1963-01-23
  • University of Texas, Art Museum, 1963-02-04 to 1963-03-31

Art in Italy, 1600-1700

  • Detroit Institute of Arts, 1965-04-06 to 1965-05-09

Italian Renaissance Art and Baroque Paintings from the Collections of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.: An Exhibition to mark the opening of the Willis Houston Memorial Wing

  • Norfolk, Museum of Arts and Sciences, 1967-12-02 to 1968-05-15

Captured Emotions: Baroque Painting in Bologna 1575-1725

  • J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008-12-16 to 2009-05-03

[on loan]

  • New Orleans, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1980-11-03 to 1981-08-12

Reinstallation of Galleries: Art History of the 17th and 18th Century Gains Fresh Dimension

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  • Pergola, P. della, Arte antica e moderna, 1964, no. 238 p. 454
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  • The Age of Corregio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1986, p. 446
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  • Desauvage, Grégory, Liège Museum No. 3, 2011, 1, 13
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  • Zeller, Matthew, RECONSTRUCTING LOST INSTRUMENTS: SYNTAGMA MUSICUM AND THE VIOLIN FAMILY CA. 1619, 2019, Fig. 3 pp. 141-142, p. 141 (ill.)
  • Cerkovnik, Esma, "...et nos immutabimur" - Music and Conversion in Rome in the First Half of the 17th Century, 2020, Figure 6 p. 166
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  • DAVID GARCÍA CUETO & ANDRÉS ÚBEDA, GUIDO RENI, 2023, Fig. 11 p. 37 (ill.), p. 382-384
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