RENI, GUIDO
JOSEPH AND POTIPHAR'S WIFE
Cesare Malvasia (1678), biographer of the artists of Bologna, mentions several pictures by Guido Reni on this subject: in the 17th century one of them was in the Gallery of Marquis Ferdinando Cospi and another belonged to Cardinal Jan Carlo Demidici and was held in his palace near Florence. The Moscow picture would appear to be one of these two; the second is in the collection of Viscount Coke at Holkham Hall (Norfolk, England). A group of drawings relating to this composition is known to exist.
Provenance: held in the collection of the Vorontsov-Dashkovs (St Petersburg); transferred to the Hermitage in 1920; in the Pushkin Museum since 1924.
