Lot 1050 | St. Peter (?)

In his catalogue contribution to the exhibition "Da Giotto a de Chirico. I tesori nascosti" (MuSa, Salò, 2016), Erich Schleier was able to place the present painting in the context of Guido Reni's work in detail and to confirm it as a hand-made work of the Italian Baroque master. Schleier dates the work to 1608/1610, i.e. during Reni's time in Rome, before he returned to Bologna in 1614, where he influenced the painting of the Bolognese school.
A probably somewhat earlier version of this painting existed (until 1984) in a private collection in London. Apart from a few differences - the finger position, the design of the leaves of the book and the folds of the mantle - these two original works of Reni's correspond to each other. The somewhat smaller London painting is known as "St. Peter with Book".
Schleier questions this iconographic classification. In fact, the tear-stained eyes and physiognomy of the sitter correspond to the well-known topos of "Peter in lacrima", the repentant, penitent disciple. Guido Reni and his assistants have painted this theme in several variations. In these depictions, however, Peter usually looks towards heaven over folded hands or with one hand in front of his chest in desperate repentance. The book does not appear in the known versions. Neither is Peter's cloak red in any of the paintings. Part of the recognition by the faithful was a certain "dress code", which the artists observed and handed down, and the robe of Peter is mostly blue in Baroque paintings with a yellow to brown cloak. Just as Guido Reni painted it in his famous painting "The Apostles Peter and Paul" (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan).
The red cloak in combination with the book as an attribute are typical distinguishing features of St. Jerome and Erich Schleier also puts forward this hypothesis in his above-mentioned essay. However, the ascetic hermit Hieronymus is generally more emaciated in depictions and naked under his red cloak.
Another idea could be more conclusive: the book and red cloak are often traditional attributes of the apostle Paul. Guido Reni, for example, also painted the - however younger - apostle in the above-mentioned painting in Milan.
The saint's tear-stained eyes in this painting are rather restrained and his whole gesture is not as dramatic as in the "Peter in lacrima" tradition. 
As the writer of the 2nd letter of Corinthians, also called the "Letter to the Tears", the gesture would fit and in that same letter Paul deals with "God's consolation in tribulation" in the first chapter.
The example of this impressive portrait shows that even the work of such an "explored" artist as Guido Reni still holds mysteries.