Allegory of Fortune, holding a crown

Allegory of Fortune Holding a Crown by Reni personifies the capricious goddess who bestows or withholds worldly success. Fortune allegories reflected Baroque fascination with the role of chance in human destiny. Guido Reni's refined classicism and ethereal beauty made him one of the most celebrated painters in Europe during his lifetime, his graceful idealized figures expressing a spirituality that appealed equally to Counter-Reformation piety and aristocratic aesthetic sensibility.

The personified Fortune holds her crown with characteristic Reni elegance and luminosity. The allegorical figure embodies the ideal of beauty that distinguished his approach.