"Cleopatra" notebook

Plain paper. A5 (14.5 x 21 cm). 100 sheets (200 pages).

This magnificent work, Cleopatra (1621-26), a detail of which is reproduced on the cover of this practical notebook, is enveloped in the enigmatic, cold and captivating sensuality of Reni's paintings of goddesses, saints and heroines of antiquity, which were a great success in Europe at the time. The artist creates a language with the interplay of the draperies that envelop the body, in this case of an intense red colour, whose rich fabrics probably allude to the fabrics of Bologna, which was then a major silk-production centre, and contrast with the whiteness and smoothness of the skin of the sitters.