Europa and the Bull

Guido Reni managed one of the busiest studios of the 17th century. His most popular compositions can exist in several versions, with varying degrees of involvement of the master. A prime version of this picture can be seen in the National Gallery, NG6642. The conservation of Dulwich?s painting has confirmed it as a good studio piece, for the most part much harder-edged than Reni?s own fluid and brilliant brushwork, but with some passages of high quality. The face of Europa is typical of the ?type? favoured by Reni - its influence can be traced clearly in the face of one of Lot?s daughters, in a much later painting by Franceschini also in the Dulwich collection (DPG629).