Guido Reni
Born – Bologna, Italy 1572
Died – Bologna, Italy 1642
Guido Reni trained at the Carracci Academy in Bologna, Italy. Here his work benefited from the special emphasis that was placed in drawings from life. He visited Rome in 1600, where Raphael exerted a significant influence. Reni painted graceful reworkings of ancient and classical themes, distinguished mainly by the refined beauty of his colouring. He reputedly remarked that, “the only paintings that were beautiful and perfect were those that continued to grow on one as one viewed them day after day”. He could well have been referring to his own work, Massacre of the Innocents. The melodramatic nature of his powerful composition has – due to the studied concentration of upturned faces and the folds draperies- a static, almost frozen, beauty. Reni was an eccentric whose allegedly modest character did not temper his penchant for expensive clothes or gambling. He became the most important painter in Bologna after Ludovico Carraci’s death in 1619 and managed a large and busy studio. Reni enjoyed a great reputation in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which only declined after Ruskin launched an attack on the pious sentimentality of his religious work.
Masterpieces:
- Crucifixion of St Peter
- Aurora
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Books About guido reni
The Divine Guido: Religion, Sex, Money, and Art in the World of Guido Reni
Mr. Richard E. Spear
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Guido Reni: The Agony & the Ecstasy
Piero Boccardo
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Guido Reni
Andrea Emiliani
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