We thank Professor Raffaella Morselli for suggesting the attribution, after having viewed the work live.

According to the scholar, the painting constitutes a beautiful and unpublished proof that enriches the corpus by Giovan Giacomo Sementi, a close collaborator of Guido Reni during his stay in Rome. The Renian influences clearly emerge in the figure of the saint who retrieves some of the master's famous models, for example that of the Santa Cecilia commissioned by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, passed into the collection of Cardinal Scipione Caffarelli-Borghese and which today is kept at the Norton Simon Museum (inv. F.1973.23.P). Look at this composition another work by Sementi from the Bolognese period, the Martirio di Santa Vittoria (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera) which, in the figure of the martyr, offers a term of comparison with the Santa Cecilia under examination. It was customary for the artists working in Reni's workshop not only to support and replace the master but also to produce faithful versions of his most successful compositions, an exercise due to the demanding request of the numerous collectors (M. Francucci, Giovanni Giacomo Sementi, among Bologna and Rome , in "Paragone", year LXVI, 123-124, September-November 2015, pp. 21-22). & Nbsp;

Following the transfer of the painter to Rome in 1624, the Bolognese matrix is freely reinterpreted with elements of Roman influence, allowing Sementi to achieve high results "in which the ideal perfection of the Renian world is contaminated with naturalist suggestions, however making use of bright colors and forging a new captivating imaginary" (M. Francucci, op. Cit., P. 27, on the Roman period of the painter, see G. Serafinelli, The last stay in Rome of Giovan Giacomo Sementi, collaborator of Guido Reni: some novelties and documentary confirmation on his date of death , in "Tactile Values", 2015, n. 5-6, p. 300). & Nbsp;

Prof. Morselli suggests, in particular, a comparison with two other works performed by Sementi in Rome: the Allegory of Vanity (Turin, Galleria Sabauda) and Flora (Modena, banking collection). & Nbsp;