Guido Reni
Encyclopedia
Guido Reni was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 of high-Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 style.

Biography

Born in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

 into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert
Denis Calvaert
Denis Calvaert was a Flemish painter born at Antwerp, but lived most of his life in Italy, where he was known as Il Fiammingo . Calvaert was a profound student of architecture, anatomy, and history, exceedingly accurate in perspective and graceful in design...

. Soon after, he was joined in that studio by Albani
Francesco Albani
Francesco Albani or Albano was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early years in Bologna:Born 1578 in Bologna, his father was a silk merchant who intended to instruct his son in the same trade; but by age twelve, Albani became an apprentice under the competent mannerist painter Denis Calvaert, where he...

 and Domenichino. He may also have trained with a painter by the name of Ferrantini. When Reni was about twenty years old, the three Calvaert pupils migrated to the rising rival studio, named Accademia degli Incamminati
Accademia degli Incamminati
The Accademia degli Incamminati was one of the first art academies in Italy. It was originally created around 1580 in Bologna as the Accademia dei Desiderosi and was sometimes known as the Accademia dei Carracci after its founders the Carracci cousins , with Annibale heading the institution thanks...

(Academy of the "newly embarked", or progressives), led by Lodovico Carracci. They went on to form the nucleus of a prolific and successful school of Bolognese painters who followed Annibale Carracci to Rome. Like many other Bolognese painters, Reni's painting was thematic and eclectic in style.

Work in Rome

By late 1601, Reni and Albani had moved to Rome to work with the teams led by Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...

 in fresco decoration of the Farnese Palace. During 1601-1604, his main patron was Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati
Paolo Emilio Sfondrati
Paolo Emilio Sfondrati was an Italian Cardinal.Born to a noble family in Milan and the nephew of Pope Gregory XIV, he was the cardinal priest of Santa Cecilia, papal legate in Bologna, member of the Congregation of the Sant'Offizio and a good friend of San Filippo Neri.He was bishop of Cremona,...

. By 1604-1605, he received an independent commission for an altarpiece of the Crucifixion of St. Peter. After a few year sojourn in Bologna, he returned to Rome to become one of the premier painters during the papacy of Paul V
Pope Paul V
-Theology:Paul met with Galileo Galilei in 1616 after Cardinal Bellarmine had, on his orders, warned Galileo not to hold or defend the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus. Whether there was also an order not to teach those ideas in any way has been a matter for controversy...

 (Borghese
Borghese
Borghese is the surname of a family of Italian noble and papal background, originating as the Borghese or Borghesi in Siena, where they came to prominence in the 13th century holding offices under the commune. The head of the family, Marcantonio, moved to Rome in the 16th century and there,...

). From 1607-1614, he was one of the painters patronized by the Borghese family.
Reni's frescoed ceiling of the large central hall of garden palace, Casino dell'Aurora located in the grounds of the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi
Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi
The Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi is a palace in Rome, Italy. It was built by the Borghese family on the Quirinal Hill; its footprint occupies the site where the ruins of the baths of Constantine stood, whose remains still are part of the basement of the main building, the Casino dell'Aurora...

, is considered his masterpiece. The casino was originally a pavilion commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese
Scipione Borghese
Scipione Borghese was an Italian Cardinal, art collector and patron of the arts. A member of the Borghese family, he was the patron of the painter Caravaggio and the artist Bernini...

; the rear portion overlooks the Piazza Montecavallo and Palazzo del Quirinale. The massive fresco is framed in quadri riportati and depicts Apollo in his Chariot preceded by Dawn (Aurora) bringing light to the world. The work is restrained in classicism, copying poses from Roman sarcophagi, and showing far more simplicity and restraint than Carracci's riotous Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne in the Farnese. Reni in this painting allies himself more with the sterner Cavaliere d'Arpino
Giuseppe Cesari
Giuseppe Cesari was an Italian Mannerist painter, also named Il Giuseppino and called Cavaliere d'Arpino, because he was created Cavaliere di Cristo by his patron Pope Clement VIII. He was much patronized in Rome by both Sixtus V.-Biography:Cesari's father had been a native of Arpino, but...

, Lanfranco
Giovanni Lanfranco
Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.-Biography:Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the household of Count Orazio Scotti...

, and Albani
Francesco Albani
Francesco Albani or Albano was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early years in Bologna:Born 1578 in Bologna, his father was a silk merchant who intended to instruct his son in the same trade; but by age twelve, Albani became an apprentice under the competent mannerist painter Denis Calvaert, where he...

 "School" of mytho-historic painting, and less with the more crowded frescoes characteristic of Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...

. There is little concession to perspective, and the vibrantly colored style is antithetical to the tenebrism of Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...

's followers. Payments showed that he was paid in 247 scudi and 54 baiocchi upon completion on 24 September 1616.

He also frescoed in Paoline Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome as well as the Aldobrandini
Aldobrandini
The Aldobrandini are an Italian noble family from Florence, with close ties to the Vatican. Its Roman fortunes were made when Ippolito Aldobrandini became pope under the name Pope Clement VIII. He arranged the marriage that linked the Aldobrandini with the Roman family of Pamphili...

 wings of the Vatican. According to rumor, the pontifical chapel of Montecavallo (Chapel of the Annuciation) was assigned to Reni to paint. However, because he felt underpaid by the ministers, the artist left for Bologna, leaving the role of the preeminent artist in Rome to Domenichino.

Work in Naples and return to Bologna

In later years, Reni traveled to Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 to complete a commission to paint a ceiling in a chapel of the San Gennaro
Cathedral of Naples
Naples Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral, the main church of Naples, southern Italy, and the seat of the Archbishop of Naples. It is widely known as the Cattedrale di San Gennaro, in honour of Saint Januarius, the city's patron saint, but is actually dedicated to the Assumption of the...

. However, in Naples, the other local prominent painters, including Corenzio
Belisario Corenzio
Belisario Corenzio was an Italian Mannerist painter, a Greek by birth. He is reputed, with little documentation, to have studied under Tintoretto, in part because his drawings often resemble those of the Venetian painter...

, Caracciolo and Ribera, were vehemently resistant to competitors, and according to rumor, conspired to poison or otherwise harm Reni (as may have befallen Domenichino in Naples after him). He passed briefly by Rome, but left that city abruptly, during the pontificate of Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...

, after being reprimanded by Cardinal Spinola.
Returning to Bologna, more or less permanently, Reni established a successful and prolific studio.
He was commissioned to decorate the cupola of the chapel of Saint Dominic in the Basilica of San Domenico
Basilica of San Domenico
The Basilica of San Domenico is one of the major churches in Bologna, Italy. The remains of Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers , are buried inside the exquisite shrine Arca di San Domenico, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò...

 in Bologna, between 1613 and 1615, resulting in the radiant fresco St Dominic's Glory, a masterpiece that can stand the comparison with the exquisite Arca di San Domenico
Arca di San Domenico
The Arca di San Domenico is a monument containing the remains of Saint Dominic. It is located in Dominic’s Chapel in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna, Italy.- History :...

 below. He also contributed to the decoration of the Rosary Chapel in the same church with the Resurrection.

In Ravenna, he painted the chapel in the cathedral with his admired picture of the Israelites gathering Manna. Reni, after departing Rome, alternately painted in a variety of styles, true to the eclectic tastes of many of Carracci trainees. For example, his altarpiece for Samson Victorious formulates stylized poses characteristic of Mannerism
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

. In contrast his Crucifixion and his Atlanta and Hipomeneshttp://www.wga.hu/html/r/reni/1/atalantb.html depict dramatic diagonal movement coupled with the effects of light and shade that betray the influence of Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...

. His turbulent and violent Massacre of the Innocents (Pinacoteca, Bologna) is painted in a manner reminiscent of Raphael. In 1625 Prince Władysław Sigismund Vasa
Władysław IV Vasa
Władysław IV Vasa was a Polish and Swedish prince from the House of Vasa. He reigned as King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 8 November 1632 to his death in 1648....

 of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 visited the artist workshop in Bologna during his voyage to Western Europe. The close rapport between the painter and the Polish Prince resulted in the acquisitions of drawings and paintings. In 1630, he painted the Pallion del Voto with images of St. Ignatius and Francis Xavier, painted during the plague of 1630 that attacked Bologna.

His most distinguished pupil was Simone Cantarini
Simone Cantarini
Simone Cantarini , also known as Simone da Pesaro, was an Italian painter and etcher of the Bolognese School of painting.Cantarini was born in Oropezza near Pesaro, then part of the Papal States....

, named "Il Pesarese"; he painted a portrait of his master, now in the Bolognese Gallery. Other trainees were Domenico Maria Canuti
Domenico Maria Canuti
Domenico Maria Canuti was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Bologna and Rome.Born in Bologna, Canuti first trained in that city under Guido Reni, then with Guercino. He painted many ceiling and wall frescoes...

 and Giovanni Battista Michelini
Giovanni Battista Michelini
Giovanni Battista Michelini was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Foligno and Rome. He was born in Foligno, but became a pupil of Guido Reni...

. The Uffizi Gallery holds a self-portrait. Other pupils were Giacomo Semenza, Francesco Gessi
Francesco Gessi
Francesco Gessi was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Bologna.Born to a noble family, but his father noticed his attraction to the arts and placed him in the apprenticeship with Denys Calvaert. This did not last, since he apparently disturbed the other pupils. He was more...

, and Marco Bandinelli
Marco Bandinelli
Marco Bandinelli, also known as Marchino di Guido Reni, was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He began as a model and cook for Guido Reni in Bologna.-References:...

. His themes are mostly biblical and mythological in subject. He painted few portraits; those of Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V , born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Pope from 1585 to 1590.-Early life:The chronicler Andrija Zmajević states that Felice's family originated from modern-day Montenegro...

, Cardinal Bernardino Spada, and the so‑called Beatrice Cenci are among the most noticeable. The identity of the Cenci portrait is very doubtful, since Beatrice Cenci was executed in Rome before Reni ever lived there and so could not have sat for the portrait. Many etchings are attributed to Guido Reni, some after his own paintings and some after other masters. They are spirited, in a light style of delicate lines and dots. Reni's technique was used by the Bolognese school and was the standard for Italian printmakers of his time.

Reni died in Bologna in 1642.

He is buried with Elisabetta Sirani
Elisabetta Sirani
Elisabetta Sirani was an Italian Baroque painter whose father was the painter Giovanni Andrea Sirani of the School of Bologna-Biography:...

 in the Rosary Chapel of the Basilica of San Domenico
Basilica of San Domenico
The Basilica of San Domenico is one of the major churches in Bologna, Italy. The remains of Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers , are buried inside the exquisite shrine Arca di San Domenico, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò...

 in Bologna.

Partial anthology of works

  • Self-Portrait, Whitfield Fine Art
    Whitfield Fine Art
    The Whitfield Fine Art Gallery is an art gallery in Mayfair, London, owned and founded by Clovis Whitfield in 1979. The gallery specialises in Italian Old Master paintings.-History:...

    http://www.whitfieldfineart.com/?cat=2
  • Callisto
    Callisto (mythology)
    In Greek mythology, Callisto or Kallisto was a nymph of Artemis. Transformed into a bear and set among the stars, she was the bear-mother of the Arcadians, through her son Arcas.-Origin of the myth:...

     and Diana
  • Crucifixion of St Peter, Vatican, Rome
  • Christ Crucified, San Lorenzo in Lucina
    San Lorenzo in Lucina
    The Church of St Lawrence's at Lucina is a Roman Catholic parish and titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, dedicated to Saint Lawrence, Roman deacon and martyr. The name Lucina comes from the Roman matron owner of the house on which the church was built.The current Cardinal Priest of...

    , Rome
  • Holy Trinity, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini
    Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, Rome
    The Chiesa della Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini is a church in the historic city centre of Rome. In the Regola rione, it neighbours other important historic buildings such as the Palazzo Farnese, Ponte Sisto and the Via Giulia.In 2008 Pope Benedict XVI entrusted the parish to the Priestly...

    , Rome
  • Conception, Forlì
    Forlì
    Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...

  • Alms of St. Roch, Bologna
  • Massacre of the Innocents, Bologna
  • Pietà, Bologna
  • Penitent Magdalene ca. 1635, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore http://www.thewalters.org/collections_art/itemdetails.aspx?aid=204
  • Penitent Peter, Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art
    Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art
    The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art is an independent, non-profit art museum located in Shawnee, OK. It is affiliated with St. Gregory's Abbey. It is on the campus of St. Gregory's University. The museum works under the belief that art enriches individual lives and enhances the entire community....

    , Shawnee, Oklahoma
  • Lament over the Body of Christ, Chiesa dei Mendicanti, Bologna
  • Ecce Homo, Gemaldegälerie, Dresden
  • Saints Peter and Paul, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
  • Assumption of the Virgin, Sant'Ambrogio, Genoa
  • Assumption of Mary, Chiesa parrocchiale di Santa Maria, Castelfranco Emilia
    Castelfranco Emilia
    Castelfranco Emilia is a town and comune in Italy in the province of Modena, region of Emilia-Romagna. The town lies c. 25 km northwest of Bologna....

  • St. Paul the Hermit and St. Anthony in the Wilderness, Berlin
  • Fortune, Capitol
  • Samson Drinking from the Jawbone of an Ass
  • Ariadne Capitoline Museums
    Capitoline Museums
    The Capitoline Museums are a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The museums are contained in three palazzi surrounding a central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over...

  • Atalanta and Hippomenes 1612 Prado, Madrid http://www.wga.hu/html/r/reni/1/atalanta.html
  • Atalanta and Hippomenes 1622-25 Capodimonte, Naples http://www.wga.hu/html/r/reni/1/atalantb.html
  • Madonna del Rosario, Pinacoteca, Bologna
  • The Labors of Hercules, Louvre,
  • The Suicide of Lucrezia ca. 1625-40 São Paulo Art Museum
    São Paulo Art Museum
    The São Paulo Museum of Art is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil...

    , São Paulo
    São Paulo
    São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

  • Lucrezia and Cleopatra, Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome
  • San Sebastiano, Pinacoteca, Bologna
  • Saint Sebastian, Dulwich Picture Gallery
    Dulwich Picture Gallery
    Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London. England's first purpose-built public art gallery, it was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane and opened to the public in 1817. Soane arranged the exhibition spaces as a series of interlinked rooms illuminated naturally...

    ; other versions are in the collections of the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum in the UK, the Palazzo Rosso
    Palazzo Rosso (Genoa)
    Palazzo Rosso is an historical palace of Genoa, northern Italy.Situated in Via Garibaldi, it is one of the most important picture galleries of the city, along with the galleries of Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Doria Tursi....

     in Genoa
    Genoa
    Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

    , the Capitoline Museum, the Louvre
    Louvre
    The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

     and at least 7 other known originals and multiple copies such as at the Kunsthistorisches Museum
    Kunsthistorisches Museum
    The Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...

     in Vienna
    Vienna
    Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

    .
  • Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, Dulwich Picture Gallery
    Dulwich Picture Gallery
    Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London. England's first purpose-built public art gallery, it was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane and opened to the public in 1817. Soane arranged the exhibition spaces as a series of interlinked rooms illuminated naturally...

  • Adoration of the Magi, Certosa di San Martino
    Certosa di San Martino
    The Certosa di San Martino is a former monastery complex, now a museum, in Naples, southern Italy. It is the most visible landmark of the city, perched atop the Vomero hill that commands the gulf. A Carthusian monastery, it was finished and inaugurated under the rule of Queen Joan I in 1368. It...

    , Naples
  • Judith, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, United States


The Louvre contains twenty of his pictures, the National Gallery of London seven, and others once there have now been removed to other public collections. The most interesting of the seven is the small Coronation of the Virgin, painted on copper. It was probably painted before the master left Bologna for Rome.
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