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Guido Reni<break strength="x-strong"/> Bologna <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1575</say-as> – <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1642</say-as><break strength="x-strong"/> Alms of Saint Rocco, <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1610</say-as><break strength="x-strong"/> Etching and burin 284 x 450 millimeters<break strength="x-strong"/> <p>Reni's etching production, although not comparable to his pictorial production, appears valuable for its immediacy and extremely happy freedom of execution. In the history of engraving, Reni's work mediates the transition from the renewed language of Agostino Carracci to the airy improvisation of the etchers of the seventeenth century.</p> <p>The Alms of Saint Rocco reproduces in reverse and with some variations a large canvas painted by Annibale Carracci in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1595</say-as>, for the Confraternity of Saint Rocco in Reggio Emilia, today preserved in Dresden at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.</p> <p>The episode depicted has its origins more in legend than in the real life of the Saint: it shows Saint Rocco intent on distributing his considerable inheritance to the poor, before leaving as a begging pilgrim for Rome. Compared to the painting, the engraving presents the notable variation consisting of the introduction of two bearded men against a pillar on the far right. This has led many scholars to believe that the etching may derive from a preparatory drawing that was not fully translated into painting rather than from Annibale's painting. The addition of the two characters could be the work of Reni himself, who in the figure looking outwards has portrayed himself and in the other Annibale Carracci, the author of the painting. Among the inscriptions along the lower marine, it is worth noting - in addition to the one relating to Annibale Carracci - the citation of the Vicenza engraver and publisher Pietro Stefanoni (<say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1557</say-as> - <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1642</say-as>) active in Rome in the first half of the seventeenth century.</p>