Oil on alabaster painting of Saint Veronica. Rome, 17th century.

An oil on alabaster painting of Saint Veronica with angels.

Rome, first half of the 17th century.

Set in a moulded and gilded wooden frame.

The frame measures 42.8 x 35.7 cm (light accidents in the frame), the alabaster measures 35 x 29cm.

This representation of Saint Veronica surrounded by angels in the clouds, derives from the ‘Immaculate Conception’ by Guido Reni, painted in 1627. It was created at the request of the Spanish Ambassador to Rome and was intended for the Infanta of Spain, it is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This divine iconography where the space of another world is materialised by clouds and angels subsequently enjoyed great popularity. Thus, the altarpiece of Reni’s Immaculate Conception, which hung in Seville Cathedral, strongly impressed many Spanish painters including Francisco de Zurbarán and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, but also Italian artists such as Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, who’s “Assumption” is a comparable composition.