Resumen de Guido Reni's royal patrons: a drawing and a proposal
The writer discusses a carefully finished composition drawing that can be identified as the work of the artist Guido Reni. Executed in pen and brown ink with brown wash, and likely to date from the 1620s, the drawing depicts an ambiguous subject. It is possible to read it as a depiction of Don Juan of Austria, in the context of the battle of Lepanto. Taking place on October 7, 1571, this battle was the last major naval engagement in Western Europe fought using galleys. Reni's drawing, which reduces this crucial naval victory to a few key elements, seems likely to have been produced as a result of his commission to produce several works for the king of Spain. The exact circumstances of the drawing's execution, and the reasons for the ultimate rejection of the subject, are unlikely to be recorded in archival material, though scholars who know Spanish political history may be able to supply some missing pieces of the puzzle.
