Lot Essay
This depiction of Lucretia still holds the record price at auction for a work by Perugian-born artist Giovanni Domenico Cerrini, from when it last sold in 2003 (€120,000; loc. cit.). Cerrini’s style was greatly influenced by Bolognese artist Guido Reni, whose workshop he joined after moving to Rome in the mid-1630s. It is therefore unsurprising that the painting was acquired as a work by Reni by Sir Robert Gore-Booth in 1837 (loc. cit.). Cerrini’s style, characterized by a chiaroscuro softness and statuesque quality of the figures, remained consistent throughout his career. Given this uniformity in style and that most of his paintings are undated, it is difficult to establish a chronology to Cerrini’s oeuvre.