# Städel Museum acquires Guido Reni’s Portrait of Cardinal Sannesi Canonical article: https://arthistory.news/news/stadel-museum-acquires-guido-reni-s-portrait-of-cardinal-sannesi-946a712d-4409-4d54-bb4c-f662a20cf19c By ArtHistory.News Published: 2026-10-08T14:13:12.404Z Frankfurt’s Städel Museum has acquired one of Guido Reni’s earliest documented portraits, a painting whose authorship was rediscovered after it appeared at auction in 2004 as a work of the Roman School. The Städel Museum in Frankfurt has acquired Guido Reni’s Portrait of Cardinal Giacomo Sannesi \(1609\), securing a rare example of the Bolognese painter’s portraiture for its permanent collection. The painting was purchased at Christie’s in New York on 2 June 2026 for $355,600, including fees, following a recommendation by Bastian Eclercy, the museum’s curator of Italian, French and Spanish paintings before 1800. Although celebrated principally for his religious and mythological compositions, Reni was an accomplished portraitist, with relatively few surviving examples. The Sannesi portrait is particularly significant as his earliest documented work in the genre, painted during his formative Roman period when he was absorbing the influence of Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci. The painting’s modern history is equally compelling. When it appeared at Sotheby’s in London in 2004, it was catalogued simply as Roman School, first half of the seventeenth century. Subsequently acquired by Galerie Canesso in Paris, it was researched by the art historian Lothar Sickel, who established both the identity of the sitter and its attribution to Reni. Crucially, Sickel connected the painting with a payment recorded in Reni’s own account book on 17 November 1609 for a portrait of Cardinal Sannesi. The attribution is further supported by an eighteenth-century inventory, historical copies and a reference in Carlo Cesare Malvasia’s biography of the artist, published in 1678. Writing in About Art Online on 4 October, Eclercy drew attention to the portrait’s remarkable psychological intensity and painterly sophistication, particularly the finely observed features of the cardinal and the subtle treatment of his crimson robes. The acquisition adds a third painting by Reni to the Städel’s collection, joining The Assumption of the Virgin \(c.1598-99\) and Christ at the Column \(c.1604\). It also builds upon the museum’s substantial research into the artist, culminating in its major retrospective Guido Reni: The Divine in 2022-23. For a painting that was still circulating under a generic attribution just over two decades ago, its arrival in one of Germany’s leading museums represents a particularly satisfying conclusion to a story of art-historical rediscovery. ## Illustrations GUIDO RENI \(BOLOGNA 1575-1642\) 'Portrait of Cardinal Giacomo Sannesi \(c. 1557⁄60-1621\), half-length' oil on canvas, 25 ¾ x 19 7⁄8 in. \(65.5 x 50.5 cm.\) Städel Museum, Frankfurt Christies [Image source](). ## Sources - [ArtHistory.News editor: ArtHistory.News editor]() ## Related records - [Guido Reni]() Please cite the canonical article URL above. Image credits and reproduction rights remain with their respective holders.