Reni, Guido (b Bologna, 4 Nov. 1575; d Bologna, 18 Aug. 1642). Bolognese painter, draughtsman, and occasional etcher. From about 1584 to 1593 he was a pupil of Calvaert, then transferred to the academy run by the Carracci, where he absorbed their tradition of clear, firm draughtsmanship. By 1601 he had moved to Rome and he was based there until 1614, although he made frequent visits to Bologna. He flirted briefly with the Caravaggesque manner (Crucifixion of St Peter, 1603, Pinacoteca, Vatican), but Raphael and the antique were the main inspiration for his graceful classical style, as is seen in his most celebrated work, Aurora (1614, Casino dell'Aurora, Palazzo Rospiglioso-Pallavacini, Rome), a captivatingly beautiful ceiling fresco painted for Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Reni was also a favourite artist of Borghese's uncle, Pope Paul V, but in spite of his success in Rome he settled in Bologna in 1614 and seldom left the city again. After Ludovico Carracci's death in 1619, he was unrivalled as Bologna's most important artist; indeed by this time he was probably the most sought-after painter in Italy. The products of his large studio (mainly religious works) were sent all over Europe and Rubens was the only contemporary painter who had a more glittering international clientele.

Reni cut an impressive, aristocratic figure, always fashionably and expensively dressed and usually attended by servants. He earned a huge amount of money from his work, but he was often in debt because of his addiction to gambling. This was one aspect of his complex and decidedly odd character, which is described in detail by his friend and biographer Malvasia. Because of this remarkable account, more is known about Reni's inner life than that of any previous artist. In spite of his love of gambling, he was deeply religious and also rather prim, hating to hear anyone swearing or even making double entendres. He was devoted to his mother, but otherwise was fearful and suspicious of women: ‘It was generally thought that he was a virgin…When observing the many lovely young girls who served as his models, he was like marble’ (it has been suggested that he was a repressed homosexual). He was renowned for his generosity to friends, colleagues, pupils, and good causes (to which he often gave money anonymously), but he was notoriously touchy, falling out with several of his fellow artists, including Albani, Domenichino, and two of his teachers— Calvaert and Ludovico Carracci. Other quirks were a fear of witchcraft and a dread of being poisoned.

The great reputation Reni enjoyed in his lifetime was maintained in the 18th and early 19th centuries, many critics ranking him second only to Raphael. He was known as ‘the Divine Guido’ and was lauded for the celestial grace of his work. However, he fell from favour under the scornful attacks of Ruskin (who detested the Bolognese painters in general), and was long dismissed as vulgar and sentimental. Until well into the 20th century a just appreciation of his stature was impeded by the failure to distinguish between his own works and those by his countless (often extremely insipid) imitators. A major exhibition devoted to him in Bologna in 1954 was a turning point in his critical fortunes, and his status as one of the greatest Italian painters of the 17th century is now firmly re-established. His late works in particular show a beauty of colouring that sets him apart from any of his contemporaries. In his early career he had typically used strong, rich colours, but he came to favour cooler harmonies, with prominent use of ice blue, apple green, pink, and pearly grey, and in the 1630s his tonality lightened even further, his pictures taking on a soft (sometimes almost ethereal), silvery glow. At the same time his brushwork became looser and the mood of his pictures more languid. These changes, particularly the less detailed handling, may have been partly a consequence of the speed at which he worked to pay off his gambling debts (he was once so desperate for money that he hired himself out by the hour), but the best of his late works have an exquisite delicacy and refinement. The largest and finest collection of his paintings is in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna.

Reni, Guido (1575–1642). Bolognese painter, draughtsman, and occasional etcher. From about 1584 to 1593 he was a pupil of Calvaert, then transferred to the academy run by the Carracci, where he absorbed their tradition of clear, firm draughtsmanship. By 1601 he had moved to Rome and he was based there until 1614, although he made frequent visits to Bologna. He flirted briefly with the Caravaggesque manner (Crucifixion of St Peter, 1603, Pinacoteca, Vatican), but Raphael and the Antique were the main inspiration for his graceful classical style, as is seen in his most celebrated work, Aurora (1614, Casino dell' Aurora, Palazzo Rospiglioso-Pallavacini, Rome), a captivatingly beautiful ceiling fresco painted for Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Reni was also a favourite artist of Borghese's uncle, Pope Paul V, but in spite of his success in Rome he settled in Bologna in 1614 and seldom left the city again. After Ludovico Carracci's death in 1619, he was unrivalled as Bologna's most important artist; indeed by this time he was probably the most sought-after painter in Italy. The products of his large studio (mainly religious works) were sent all over Europe and Rubens was the only contemporary painter who had a more glittering international clientele. Reni cut an impressive, aristocratic figure, always fashionably and expensively dressed and usually attended by servants. He earned a huge amount of money from his work, but he was often in debt because of his addiction to gambling. This was one aspect of his complex and decidedly odd character, which is described in detail by his friend and biographer Malvasia. Because of this remarkable account, more is known about Reni's inner life than that of any previous artist. In spite of his love of gambling, he was deeply religious and also rather prim, hating to hear anyone swearing or even making double entendres. He was devoted to his mother, but otherwise was fearful and suspicious of women: ‘It was generally thought that he was a virgin…When observing the many lovely young girls who served as his models, he was like marble’ (it has been suggested that he was a repressed homosexual). He was renowned for his generosity to friends, colleagues, pupils, and good causes (to which he often gave money anonymously), but he was notoriously touchy, falling out with several of his fellow artists, including Albani, Domenichino, and two of his teachers—Calvaert and Ludovico Carracci. Other quirks were a fear of witchcraft and a dread of being poisoned.

The great reputation Reni enjoyed in his lifetime was maintained in the 18th and early 19th centuries, many critics ranking him second only to Raphael. He was known as ‘the Divine Guido’ and was lauded for the celestial grace of his work. However, he fell from favour under the scornful attacks of Ruskin (who detested the Bolognese painters in general), and was long dismissed as vulgar and sentimental. Until well into the 20th century a just appreciation of his stature was impeded by the failure to distinguish between his own works and those by his countless (often extremely insipid) imitators. The great exhibition devoted to him in Bologna in 1954 was a turning point in his critical fortunes, and his status as one of the greatest Italian painters of the 17th century is now firmly re-established. His late works in particular show a beauty of colouring that sets him apart from any of his contemporaries. In his early career he had typically used strong, rich colours, but he came to favour cooler harmonies, with prominent use of ice blue, apple green, pink, and pearly grey, and in the 1630s his tonality lightened even further, his pictures taking on a soft (sometimes almost ethereal), silvery glow. At the same time his brushwork became looser and the mood of his pictures more languid. These changes, particularly the less detailed handling, may have been partly a consequence of the speed at which he worked to pay off his gambling debts (he was once so desperate for money that he hired himself out by the hour), but the best of his late works have an exquisite delicacy and refinement. The largest and finest collection of his paintings is in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna.

Guido Reni

The Italian painter Guido Reni (1575-1642) is known for the gentle, highly decorative form of baroque classicism he developed.

Guido Reni was born in Bologna on Nov. 4, 1575. He began his apprenticeship under the mannerist painter Denis Calvaert and then entered the new, more progressive art school run by the Carracci. Their influence was to prove decisive. The Carracci opposed mannerism and urged instead a return to the generalized realism of the great masters of the High Renaissance, above all to Raphael, Titian, and Veronese.

Reni's personal life is a delight to those who insist that artists must be peculiar. He was, according to contemporary reports, neither heterosexual nor homosexual but absolutely sexless. His obsessive fear of women reached the point where he believed their slightest touch might poison him. The discovery of a woman's blouse that had found its way into his laundry left him terrified. Even in his own day there was thought to be a relationship between the asceticism of his life and the subdued, withdrawn quality of his art.

During the first years of the 17th century Reni spent much time in Rome. At first the fame of Caravaggio overwhelmed him. In the Crucifixion of St. Peter (ca. 1603) Reni tried as best he could to imitate Caravaggio's rough peasant types and deep shadows. At the same time, through the rather formal poses of the figures and the careful symmetry of the composition, he attempted to maintain his native Bolognese classicism.

But Reni soon abandoned this uneasy compromise. By 1609 he had replaced Annibale Carracci as the leader of baroque classicism in Rome. The Aurora fresco that Reni painted in the Casino of the Pallavicini-Rospigliosi palace in Rome (1614) is justly famous for its crisp, Hellenistic elegance.

After Reni returned to Bologna in 1614, his formalism became still more accentuated. In Atalanta and Hippomenes (ca. 1625) the coldly impersonal nude figures, though shown in the act of running a race, are frozen like fragments of ancient marble statues that have been cemented into a wall so as to form abstract linear patterns.

Late in life Reni developed what 17th-century critics called his second manner. In paintings such as Cleopatra and Girl with a Wreath (ca. 1635) we no longer see elaborate arrangements of poses or garment folds. Their place is taken by a play not of line but of color, of paint laid on thinly in loose, open brushstrokes. The many pale, commingled hues are all grayed over, so that their color harmonies, at times almost painfully delicate, can be read only with intensive study. Reni died on Aug. 18, 1642, in Bologna.

Further Reading

The standard work on Reni is in Italian. In English, see the sections on him in Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750 (1962; 2d ed. 1965), and in E. K. Waterhouse, Italian Baroque Painting (1962; 2d ed. 1969). The chapter on Reni in Robert Enggass and Jonathan Brown, Sources and Documents in the History of Art: Italy and Spain, 1600-1750 (1970), gives an interesting picture of Reni's strange personality as seen through 17th-century eyes.

Additional Sources

Malvasia, Carlo Cesare, conte, The life of Guido Reni, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980. □

Guido Reni , 1575-1642, Italian painter and engraver, b. Bologna. As a child he entered the studio of the Flemish painter Denis Calvaert. He was for a short time (c.1595) a pupil of the Carracci, who were then at the height of their popularity. By 1598 he had been commissioned by the government to execute decorative frescoes for the facade of the Palazzo Pubblico. Shortly after 1600 he made the first of his many trips to Rome, which was to become the center of his activities until 1614. He became a rival of Caravaggio, whose work clearly influenced his famous Crucifixion of St. Peter (Vatican). He worked (c.1608-c.1609) on frescoes in the Church of San Gregorio Magno (Rome). There, in his God the Father above a Concert of Angels, he displays the grandeur of style and glittering tonality characteristic of his most renowned work, the Aurora fresco of 1613, in the Rospigliosi Palace, Rome. In 1620 he began the frescoes and the altarpiece Israelites Gathering the Manna, in the cathedral at Ravenna. During the latter part of his life he returned to Bologna, where he established his own academy. Among his many works in European museums are Atalanta and Hippomenes (Prado) and Ecce Homo (versions in the National Gall., London, and the Louvre) and Mater Dolorosa (versions in the Corsini Gall., Rome, and in Berlin). He made engravings of his own and others artists' works. In spite of his voluptuous sentimentality, Guido's abilities surpassed those of most of his Bolognese contemporaries. During the 17th and 18th cent. he was held in great esteem.

Bibliography: See study by D. S. Pepper (1984).

Reni, Guido (1575–1642) Italian painter who became the leading master of Bolognese art. Reni's most celebrated works include Massacre of the Innocents (1611), Aurora (1613), and Atlanta and Hippoinenes (c.1625).

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk; http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a221-1.html; http://www.pinacotecabologna.it/visita

Guido Reni see Reni, Guido .