Artist Guido Reni

Italian Baroque Painter

Apr 28, 2009 Meg Nola

Once called the Divine Guido, Reni took many posthumous critical punches in the late 19th century, but recent years have brought renewed appreciation and respect.

Born November 4, 1575, Guido Reni was the child of a musical family from Bologna, Italy. There were early hopes that he would learn to play the harpsichord, but Guido chose art instead. As a boy he studied with Flemish artist Denys Calvaert, and then moved from Calvaert’s more fixed Mannerist influence to the “Eclectic” teachings of the Carracci Academy. The Carracci cousins — Lodovico, Annibale and Agostino — impressed upon young Reni the glorious technique of Renaissance genius Raphael, and Raphael would have a strong influence on Reni’s future work. Reni also found much inspiration in ancient Greco-Roman art and sculpture.

Reni initially showed some imitation of Caravaggio, but he then decided to take things in his own direction — a decision partly prompted by a suggestion of Annibale Carracci to “reverse” Caravaggio’s heavier shadows and forms. Reni’s refined style also drew upon his admiration for the paintings of Correggio, Parmigianino, and Veronese. Reni’s subject matter generally tended toward the mainstay themes of Baroque art — myth and religion — and his depictions of the human form in both flesh-tones and anatomical precision were highly expert, making him one of the top figure painters of his day.

Commissions and Career

Reni was shrewd and diplomatic enough to skillfully develop his reputation in the sometimes turbulent and often competitive artistic climate of 17th century Italy. He received commissions from Pope Paul V and produced fresco work for the Quirinal and Farnese Palaces. Upon traveling to Naples to begin a commission for the Chapel at San Gennaro, Reni was reportedly threatened by the major Neapolitan painters of the time and told to leave town or die. Reni opted to abandon the job and eventually returned to the relative safety and civility of Bologna.

Personality-wise, Reni was a study in contrasts. Rather superstitious and paranoid by nature, he feared the presence of women to such an extent that it is rumored he remained celibate throughout his entire life. He did love his mother devotedly, though, and despite tendencies toward arrogance believed that faith in God and fear of God were his best internal motivators. Reni’s need to gamble often brought financial troubles, however, and compromised the quality of his work as he painted hastily to pay off large debts.

Reputation and Ruskin

In his later years, Reni’s style became more vaporous and subtly colored. Beyond his painting, he was also an etcher and renowned teacher of hundreds of students, and at the time of his death in August of 1642, Reni was respected, famed, and even referred to as The Divine Guido. His reputation held until the mid-19th century, when the influential English critic John Ruskin decided that Reni was overrated and even contemptible, with particular questioning of the sincerity of Reni’s religious art.

Further criticism came from other writers George Elliott and Bernard Berenson, with damning words like “disgust unspeakable” seriously dulling Reni’s luster. The auction value of his paintings dipped to embarrassing lows until the mid-20th century, when Bologna itself began to rechampion native son Reni’s talents and encouraged the rest of the art world to follow.

Legacy

Guido Reni’s art can be found at such institutions as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Walters Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage Museum, the Louvre, the Vatican Museums, the National Gallery of Australia, the Piacoteca Nazionale di Bologna — to name but a few. Additionally, Reni’s stunning fresco St. Dominic’s Glory can be seen at the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna, where Reni is also buried.

Sources

• The Life of Guido Reni — Carlo Cesare Malvasia (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980)
• The Partial Comeback of a Fallen Angel — Time.com

The copyright of the article Artist Guido Reni in Classical Art History is owned by Meg Nola. Permission to republish Artist Guido Reni in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Self-Portrait (Guido Reni, 1635)

Atalanta and Hippomenes (Guido Reni)

St. Cecilia (Guido Reni, 1616)