A Queen's Picture

the subject would only be specified later, in a letter
on January 9, 1638. 3
The early biographer Carlo Cesare Malvasia
suggested that Guido might have enlisted the
assistance of Francesco Albani as earlier treatments
of the subjects included large landscapes – such as
that by Titian in a series made for Alfonso I d’Este
– as Albani excelled at that specific genre. 4 Instead,
Reni chose to set the scene against a backdrop of a
vast sea, which in fact more accurately corresponds
with the story where the scene plays out on a
beach. Reni had used similar solutions on other
occasions. For example, in the Victorious Samson in
the Pinacoteca di Bologna and in the two versions
of Atalanta and Hippomenes, now in the Prado and
Capodimonte museums, the artist depicts figures
set majestically against a background void of detail.
3 S. Madocks, Trop de beautez découvertes: New light on Guido Reni's late Bacchus and Ariadne, p. 545
4 C.C. Malvasia, Felsina pittrice. Vite de’ pittori bolognesi, Bologna, 1678 (1841 edition), II, p. 37-38