19th-Century Copy of Reni Painting & Frame
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GUEST:
My wife fell in love with that picture because of the haunting eyes of the subject. And she was told that it was the painting of a Moroccan girl. And because it was so beautiful and the setting so unusual, we had to have it, so she bought it.
APPRAISER:
This is probably one of the most famous paintings in the world.
GUEST:
Is that so?
APPRAISER:
It's one of the most copied paintings ever.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
This is a copy of a famous painting that's in Rome. It's a painting that supposedly was painted by Guido Reni around 1640 in Rome, of an unfortunate woman by the name of Beatrice Cenci. And Beatrice Cenci was a young woman who got caught up in a problem with her family, and ended up with incest and murder and violence and mayhem. It was the O.J. Simpson trial of the day. And this was supposedly painted by Guido Reni, the night before she was to be executed.
GUEST:
Is that right?
APPRAISER:
And there's a great legend. The painting is still today in Rome. And in the 19th century, the author Shelley wrote a poem called "The Cenci" describing all of this, and people read it; it was a very popular poem in the 19th century. When Americans and Europeans would go to Europe and they would go to Rome, this was the first place they would stop because they remembered Shelley's poem, they remembered the story of the Cenci, and they'd go see this poor, unfortunate young woman and her painting. Now, the Romans, being smart... the young Roman painters would make copies of this painting to sell to the tourists who come by, and this would be like a postcard or a souvenir that you would take back from Rome, back to the United States.
GUEST:
So, in fact, it was a tourist production.
APPRAISER:
Exactly, and you think about it today, this is a little large to put on the 747…
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
…but in those days, you would go for months with huge pieces of furniture and luggage and whatnot; you'd take all this back. Now, this painting probably came back without a frame. One of the great things about this is this frame. The frame is a lot of value. This is an American frame from the mid-century, mid-19th century, so it's probably framed back here and that's where a lot of the value is. The whole piece-- I know you paid, what, about $2,500 for it?
GUEST:
That's correct.
APPRAISER:
That's about what they're worth. They sell for about those. This one, a little bit more with this nice frame, probably about $3,000 or $4,000 for it. I've sold them before, but again, it's something we see all the time, and it's nice to be able to see one and tell people what it is exactly so they know that it's a real copy of an old master and not an original.
GUEST:
That's wonderful. Well, thank you very much.
APPRAISER:
Well, thank you. Thanks for coming.
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