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Sacred and Profane Love
(17th century)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
105.0 × 139.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bequest of Howard Spensley, 1939
© Public Domain
Gallery location
16th & 17th Century Gallery - Painting and Sculpture
Mezzanine linked to Level 1, NGV International
About this work
This painting is a copy after a larger work by Guido Reni now in Genoa, Italy, dated around 1622. The theme is the eternal battle between virtue and vice, with the image of an older winged figure representing sacred love tormenting a younger figure representing profane or earthly love. The subject has many literary and visual precedents and was popular during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There are at least eight known painted copies of the work, and compared with the primary version in Genoa, the palette here is far lighter and the modelling of the figures much flatter.
Artwork Details
Provenance
Collection of Henry Pelham-Clinton (1864–1928), 7th Duke of Newcastle, Clumber Park, near Worksop, Nottinghamshire, before 1928; by descent to his brother Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope (1866–1941), 8th Duke of Newcastle, 1928; his collection, Clumber Park, 1928–37; by whom sold, Pictures from Clumber Inherited by Lord Lincoln under the Will of the 7th Duke of Newcastle, Christie's, London, 4 June 1937, no. 78 as by Reni; from where purchased by Adams (dealer?), London, 1937; from whom purchased by R.E.A. (Ted) Wilson (dealer), London, 1937; from whom purchased by Howard Spensley (c. 1870–1938), 1937; his collection, London and Bedfordshire, England, 1937-38; by whom bequeathed to NGV, 1939.