The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Camillo Borghese was elected pope in 1605 and took the name Paul V, and around 1606 or 1607 the young Guido Reni, then working in Rome, gave him this little picture. It is painted on copper and stands under 25 centimetres high. A metal plate offered a smooth, hard surface for very fine brushwork, and a small copper travelled well and sat easily in a private room, which made it a natural present for a powerful man. Next it belonged to the pope's nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese. In 1622 he gave it away in turn, to Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of the new pope Gregory XV, so the painting moved from one ruling papal family to the next. By 1685 it was in France, where the collector Pierre Beauchamps sold it to Louis XIV. In the royal collection it had a companion piece, a Virgin sewing with three angels, which was stolen in 1786.