— Reni painted popular religious works and critically acclaimed mythological scenes. He was born in Bologna and began to study painting at the age of nine, and about 1595 he became a student of the Carracci family of Bolognese painters. His studies were rounded off by a trip to Rome in about 1600. From that moment on, antique and recent Roman art became his ideals. He admired Raphael unconditionally. He did, however, come to terms with Caravaggio's naturalism in a group of youthful works such as The Crucifixion of St Peter (1604), where the use of chiaroscuro provided enormous energy.
He alternated between living in his native Bologna and visits to Rome. After Annibale Carracci's death (1609) he became the leader of the classical school of Emilian painters. His adhesion to this school can be seen in the frescos he painted in Rome in about 1610 in the Quirinal Palace, the Vatican, and various churches (e.g. San Gregorio Magno al Cielo). They were inspired by the return to classical taste and culminated in his most renowned work, the ceiling fresco Phoebus and the Hours, Preceded by Aurora (1614) which has almost mimetic qualities. The large altarpieces he painted in Bologna — The Massacre of the Innocents and Pietà dei Mendicanti — mark the triumph of design, the ability to control and channel feelings, gestures, expressions, drawing, and color into a single, eloquent, and faultless form. Guido Reni's success was underlined by the important commissions he received. They included the cycle of The Labors of Hercules (1617-1621). He exalted the clarity of light, the perfection of the body, and lively color. Toward the end of his life, Reni modified his style. His paintings became so airy as to seem insubstantial and were almost completely monochrome. He also used long, flowing brushstrokes and conveyed an atmosphere laden with intense melancholy.
Guido Reni was a quintessentially classical academic but he was also one of the most elegant painters in the annals of art history. He was constantly seeking an absolute, rarefied perfection which he measured against classical Antiquity and Raphael. Because of this, over the years the Bolognese painter has been in and out of fashion, depending on the tastes of the times. The eighteenth century loved him, the nineteenth century, persuaded by the violent criticism of John Ruskin, hated him. But even his detractors cannot deny the exceptional technical quality of his work nor the clarity of his supremely assured and harmonious brushwork.
— LINKS
— Hercules Beheads the Hydra (1621; 756x573pix, 46kb — ZOOM to 1512x1142pix, 225kb — ZOOM++ to 2268x1715pix, 245kb)
— Bacchus and Ariadne (1630; 879x889pix, 75kb — ZOOM to 1333x1180pix, 150kb — ZOOM++ to 2012x1769pix, 339kb) [the story of Bacchus and his meeting Ariadne]
— The Boy Bacchus (1618, 87x70cm) _ This graceful and serene painting was made after Reni between 1615 and 1620 after Reni had been several times to Rome.
— Drinking Bacchus (1623, 72x56cm; 843x649pix, 116kb) as a urinating baby.
— Baptism of Christ (1623, 263x186cm) _ Reni's Baptism of Christ, created in the mid 1620s as a major masterpiece of his mature style, is based on principles of composition similar to those applied in The Massacre of the Innocents. The painting is built up into three clearly distinct planes. At the very front, Christ bows beneath the baptismal cup, which John the Baptist pours over him with his raised right hand. The Baptist is standing or, rather, slightly kneeling over Christ on the banks of the Jordan. Below the arc formed by these two figures facing each other in humility, we see two angels who, together with a third figure at the outside left, are holding Christ's robes in readiness. Behind that, the trees, clouds and deep blue sky combine to create a sense of indefinable distance from which the Holy Spirit floats down in the form of a dove.
The entire scene, in its structure and coloration, is of overwhelming simplicity. The act of baptism itself is entirely void of bright colors. The matte and shimmering flesh tones of the two nude figures stand out clearly against the middle ground and background, where everything is dominated by the solemn purity of the three primary colors red, yellow and blue. On another level, however, all the figures are closely linked in that expression of complete spiritual devotion that Reni could convey like no other artist. Reni was able to create a balance of strictly disciplined compositional form and profound sentiment that his many imitators failed to achieve.
— Massacre of the Innocents (1611, 268x170cm) _ Though the historical significance of Caravaggio and his enormous influence on Baroque painting cannot be overlooked, we should not ignore the fact that there was considerable resistance against the more extreme tendencies in his art, such as the loss of the heroic sphere, or the presentation of the everyday and the ordinary. His greatest rival, whose influence was to extend far beyond that of Caravaggio well into the 18th and 19th centuries, was undoubtedly the Bolognese artist Guido Reni. An early work such as The Massacre of the Innocents bears clear traces of his initial links with Caravaggio and, at the same time, already reveals the most important arguments against him. Before a landscape bathed in light, but set with dark and heavy architecture, a group of eight adults and eight children (including the putti distributing the palm fronds of victory) has been skillfully arranged. The unusual vertical format, rarely used for this theme, and above all the symmetrical structure of figural counterparts indicate that Reni was particularly interested in a specific problem of composition: that of achieving a balance between centripetal and centrifugal movement while combining them in a static pictorial structure. Reni also seeks to achieve this equilibrium in his expression of effects and in the distribution of color accents.
— St Joseph with the Infant Jesus (1635, 126x101cm) _ The resting Mary in the background indicates that the scene is connected with the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt.
— a slightly different (without Mary) St Joseph with the Infant Jesus, from Reni's workshop.
— The Penitent St Mary Magdalene (1633, 234x151cm) [reclining, full-length, looking up to the right to a baby angel] _ The image of the penitent Mary Magdalene enjoyed great popularity between the late sixteenth century and the first decades of the seventeenth century. Cardinal Baronius, in his hard-hitting polemics against Protestantism, employed the subject (along with that of the penitent St Peter) to emphasize the necessity and validity of penance, a sacrament discarded by the reformers. The penitent Magdalene was something of a iconographic specialty for Reni, who painted various versions to please a public that prized them and continually requested them. A splendid example of the mature style of Reni, this painting is characterized by a profound classicism in the monumental and noble figure of the saint. The refined chromatic range, lit by a cold and silvery light, is also typical of Reni's art in the 1630's. The Penitent Magdalene is chronologically connected, though problematically, to a third Barberini Magdalene attributed to Vouet or one of his close followers: datable to 1626-27, the composition of the latter painting is very close to that of the Reni.
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a different The
Penitent St Mary Magdalene (1635) [standing, half-length, left hand
on a skull, looking up to the left towards outside the frame] — The Triumph of Samson (1612; 829x672pix, 41kb — ZOOM to 1105x897pix, 72kb — ZOOM++ to 1658x1345pix, 108kb) _ The unusual shape of the picture (each upper corner cut off by two arcs of circle and two straight segments) is a reminder of its original use as a fireplace cover. The well balanced figure of the hero quenching his thirst after his victory is set against a dramatic landscape littered as far as the eye can see with the corpses of his enemies.
— David with the Head of Goliath (1605, 220x145cm) _ This painting can be compared directly with Caravaggio's David With the Head of Goliath (1610) _ See also: Caravaggio's David with the Head of Goliath (1602)— Rembrandt's David Presenting the Head of Goliath to King Saul (detail) (1627) — Stanzione's David with Head of Goliath — Strozzi's David with the Head of Goliath (1635) — Aubin Vouet's David Holding the Head of Goliath — The Master of Tahull's David About to Cut Off Goliath's Head (1123)
— Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist (1640)
— Moses (1610) _ At the beginning of the 17th century the followers of Caravaggio and Carracci vied with each other for predominance. Some sought a classical approach and a serene harmony of forms and colors, others were intent on humbly capturing simple everyday life set in a powerful contrast of light and shadow. But there was no hard and fast dividing line between them and even classical painters like Guido Reni in his Moses is influenced by Caravaggio's heroic dramatic style. This new humble yet monumental language became an international phenomenon.
— The Abduction of Dejanira (259x193cm) _ This painting belongs to the cycle of Hercules, intended for the Duke of Mantua. The artist applies successfully the study of the human body, blending a naturalistic touch with his passion for Greek statues. The joyful ardor which is expressed on the face of the young centaur carrying off Dejanira should be noted.
— Atalanta and Hippomenes (1612, 206x297cm) _ an almost identical, later Atalanta and Hippomenes (1625) _ In the Boeotian version of the legend, followed by Ovid (Metamorphoses 10:560-707), Atalanta was an athletic huntress. Her way with her suitors was to challenge them to a race in which the loser was punished with death. She remained unbeaten and a virgin until Hippomenes (elsewhere named Melanion) took her on. As they ran he dropped three golden apples, given to him by Venus, and since Atalanta could not resist stopping to pick them up she lost the race. They later made love in a temple of Cybele, which offended the goddess so much that she turned them both into lions. This composition is calculated and refined. It highlights the contradictory gestures of Atalanta bending down to pick up a golden apple and of Hippomenes passing her about to win the race. The idea of movement is rendered almost exclusively by the billowing cloaks. The ivory smooth bodies of the two contestants clearly stand out remarkably against the gray-brown background.
_ Compare La course d'Hippomène et d'Atalante (1765, 321x712 cm; 873x2000pix, 200kb) by Hallé [02 Sep 1781 – 05 Jun 1781]
_ Atalanta and Hippomenes (1560; 654x1095pix, 79kb) by Schönfeld [1609-1683]
_ Hippomenes and Atalanta (1630; 274x343pix, 30kb) by Jordaens [1593-1678]
— Phoebus and the Hours, Preceded by Aurora (1614; 482x1195pix, 83kb — ZOOM to 724x1792pix, 223kb — ZOOM++ to 1086x2688pix, 261kb) _ During Guido Reni's second stay in Rome he directly tackled themes from classical Antiquity. While this composition was openly derived from classical art, it was meant in the spirit of purest love and has a genuine if rather insipid beauty. Though a ceiling decoration, it is composed in the form of a frieze as if painted on a wall. Here the artist was rebelling against the spatial researches which at that time were exciting such passionate interest in Lanfranco and Pietro da Cortona.
— Cleopatra (1640, 122x96cm; 869x754pix, 52kb — ZOOM to 2409x2071pix, 441kb) _ The painting was sent as a present to Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici with a letter of 04 January 1640 by Marchese Cospi of Bologna. This very beautiful painting belongs to the last period of Guido Reni, and in its very delicate, pale, refined color especially, it appears as one of the most striking testimonies of the surprising poetical evolution of Reni in the last years of his life. Being celebrated, it was carried off to Paris by the Napoleonic army from 1799 to 1815.
— Charity _ (about the virtue of charity)
— Susannah and the Elders _ In the Book of Daniel, Chapter 13 is told the story of the wicked elders, in revenge against Susannah who had refused to sin with them, getting her sentenced to death on their false accusation, and of the young Daniel bringing out the truth and having the elders put to death instead.
— Deianeira Abducted by the Centaur Nessus (1621)
— Baptism of Christ (1623) — The Coronation of the Virgin (1626)
— Angels in Glory, after Luca Cambiaso (1607 etching, 41x28cm; 4/5 size) _ with the inscription IVBILEMVS DEO SALVTARI NOSTRO.
— The Holy Family with Saint Clare _ (about Saint Clare of Assisi [16 Jul 1194 – 11 Aug 1253])
— Head of an Old Man (1630)
— Holy Family with Two Angels — Girl Carrying a Cushion, after Parmigianino
— Girl With a Crucifix, after Parmigianino — The Madonna and Child with Saint
— The Holy Family (1590) — Portrait of an Old Woman (1612, 34x28cm)
— 24 prints at FAMSF
