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GUIDO RENI (1575-1642) , a See also:prime See also:master in the Bolognese school of See also:painting, and one of the most admired artists of the See also:period of incipient decadence in See also:Italy, was See also:born at Calvenzano near See also:Bologna on the 4th of See also:November 1575. His See also:father was a musician of repute, a player on the See also:flageolet; he wished to bring the lad up to perform on the See also:harpsichord. At a very childish See also:age, however, Guido displayed a determined See also:bent towards the See also:art of See also:form, scribbling some See also:attempt at a See also:drawing here, there and everywhere. He was only nine years of age when See also:Denis See also:Calvart took See also:notice of him, received him into his See also:academy of See also:design by the father's permission, and rapidly brought him forward, so that by the age of thirteen Guido had already attained marked proficiency. See also:Albani and See also:Domenichino became soon afterwards pupils in the same academy. With Albani Guido was very intimate up to the earlier period of manhood, but they afterwards became rivals, both as painters and as heads of ateliers, with a See also:good See also:deal of asperity on Albani's See also:part; Domenichino was also pitted against Reni by the policy of Annibale See also:Caracci. Guido was still in the academy of Calvart when he began frequenting the opposition school kept by Lodovico Caracci, whose See also:style, far in advance of that of the Flemish painter, he dallied with. This exasperated Calvart. Him Guido, not yet twenty years of age, cheerfully quitted, transferring himself openly to the Caracci academy, in which he soon became prominent, being equally skilful and ambitious. He had not been a See also:year with the Caracci when a See also:work of his excited the wonder of See also:Agostino and the See also:jealousy of Annibale. Lodovico cherished him, and frequently painted him as an See also:angel, for the youthful Reni was extremely handsome. After a while, however, Lodovico also See also:felt himself nettled, and he patronized the competing talents of Giovanni Barbiere. On one occasion Guido had made a copy of Annibale's " Descent from the See also:Cross"; Annibale was asked to retouch it, and, finding nothing to do, exclaimed pettishly, " He knows more than enough " (" Costui ne sa troppo "). On another occasion Lodovico, consulted as See also:umpire, lowered a See also:price which Reni asked for an See also:early picture. This slight determined the See also:young See also:man to be a See also:pupil no more. He See also:left the Caracci, and started on his own See also:account as a competitor in the See also:race for patronage and fame. A renowned work, the See also:story of " See also:Callisto and See also:Diana," had been completed before he left. Guido was faithful to the eclectic principle of the Bolognese school of painting. He had appropriated something from Calvart, much more from Lodovico Caracci; he studied with much zest after See also:Albert See also:Durer; he adopted the massive, sombre and partly uncouth manner of See also:Caravaggio. One See also:day Annibale Caracci made the remark that a style might be formed See also:reversing that of Caravaggio in such matters as the ponderous shadows and the See also:gross See also:common forms; this observation germinated in Guido's mind, and he endeavoured after some such style, aiming constantly at suavity. Towards 1602 he went to See also:Rome with Albani. and Rome remained his headquarters for twenty years. Here, in the pontificate of See also:Paul V. (See also:Borghese), he was greatly noted and distinguished. In the See also:garden-See also:house of the Rospigliosi See also:Palace he painted the vast See also:fresco which is justly regarded as his masterpiece—" See also:Phoebus and the See also:Hours preceded by See also:Aurora." This exhibits his second manner, in which he had deviated far indeed from the promptings of Caravaggio. He founded now chiefly upon the See also:antique, more especially the See also:Niobe See also:group and the " See also:Venus de' See also:Medici, " modified by suggestions from See also:Raphael, See also:Correggio, See also:Parmigiano and Paul Veronese. Of this last painter, although on the whole he did not get much from him, Guido was a particular admirer; he used to say that he would rather have been Paul Veronese than any other master—Paul was more nature than art. The " Aurora " is beyond doubt a work of pre-eminent beauty and attainment; it is stamped with pleasurable dignity, and, without being effeminate, has a more See also:uniform aim after graceful selectness than can readily be traced in previous painters, greatly See also:superior though some of them had been in impulse and See also:personal fervour of See also:genius. The pontifical See also:chapel of Montecavallo was assigned to Reni to paint; but, being straitened in payments by the ministers, the artist made off to Bologna. He was fetched back by Paul V. with ceremonious eclat, and lodging, living and equipage were supplied to him. At another See also:time he migrated from Rome to See also:Naples, having received a See also:commission to paint the chapel of.S. Gennaro. The notorious See also:cabal of three painters See also:resident in Naples—See also:Corenzio, See also:Caracciolo and See also:Ribera—offered, however, as stiff an opposition to Guido as to some other interlopers who preceded and succeeded him. They gave his servant a beating by the hands of two unknown bullies, and sent by him a See also:message to his master to depart or prepare for See also:death; Guido waited for no second warning, and departed. He now returned to Rome; but he finally left that See also:city abruptly, in the pontificate of See also:Urban VIII., in consequence of an offensive reprimand administered to him by See also:Cardinal See also:Spinola. He had received an advance of 400 scudi on account of an altarpiece for St See also:Peter's, but after some See also:lapse of years had made no beginning with the work. A broad reminder from the cardinal put Reni on his mettle; he returned the 400 scudi, quitted Rome within a few days, and steadily resisted all attempts at recall. He now resettled in Bologna. He had taught as well as painted in Rome, and he left pupils behind him; but on the whole he did not See also:stamp any See also:great See also:mark upon the See also:Roman school of painting, apart from his own numerous See also:works in the papal city. In Bologna Guido lived in great splendour, and established a celebrated school, numbering more than two See also:hundred scholars. He himself See also:drew in it, even down to his latest years. On first returning to this city, he charged about £21 for a full-length figure (See also:mere portraits are not here in question), See also:half this sum for a half-length, and 5 for a See also:head. These prices must be regarded as handsome, when we consider that Domenichino about the same time received only £to, 1os. for his very large and celebrated picture, the " Last Communion of St See also:Jerome." But Guido's reputation was still on the increase, and in See also:process of time he quintupled his prices. He now left Bologna hardly at all; in one instance, however, he went off to See also:Ravenna, and, along with three pupils, he painted the chapel in the See also:cathedral with his admired picture of the " Israelites gathering See also:Manna." His shining prosperity was not to last till the end. Guido was dissipated, generously but indiscriminately profuse, and an inveterate gambler. The gambling propensity had been his from youth, but until he became elderly it did not noticeably damage his fortunes. It See also:grew upon him, and in a couple of evenings he lost the enormous sum of 14,400 scudi. The See also:vice told still more ruinously on his art than on his See also:character. In his decline he sold his time at so much per See also:hour to certain picture dealers; one of them, the Shylock of his See also:craft, would stand by, See also:watch in See also:hand, and see him work. Half-heartedness, half-performance, blighted his product: self-repetition and mere mannerism, with affectation for sentiment and vapidity for beauty, became the art of Guido. Some of these See also:trade-works, heads or half-figures, were turned out in three hours or even less. It is said that, tardily See also:wise, Reni left off gambling for
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nearly two years; at last he relapsed, and his relapse was followed not See also:long afterwards by his death, caused by See also:malignant See also:fever. This event took See also:place in Bologna on the 18th of See also:August 1642; he died in See also:debt, but was buried with great pomp in the See also: His most characteristic style exhibits a prepense ideal, of form rather than character, with a slight mode of handling, and silvery, some-what See also:cold, See also:colour. In working from the nude he aimed at perfection of form, especially marked in the hands and feet. But he was far from always going to choice nature for his See also:model; he trans-muted ad libitum, and painted, it is averred, a Magdalene of See also:demonstrative charms from a vulgar-looking colour-grinder. His best works have beauty, great amenity, See also:artistic feeling and high accomplishment of manner, all alloyed by a certain core of common-place; in the worst pictures the See also:commonplace swamps everything, and Guido has flooded See also:European galleries with trashy and empty pretentiousness, all the more noxious in that its apparent See also:grace of sentiment and form misleads the unwary into approval, and the See also:dilettante dabbler into cheap raptures. Both in Rome and wherever else he worked he introduced increased softness of style, which was then designated as the See also:modern method. His pictures are mostly Scriptural or mythologic in subject, and between two and three hundred of them are to be found in various European collections—more than a hundred of these containing See also:life-sized figures. The portraits which he executed are few—those of See also:Sixtus V., Cardinal Spada and the so-called See also:Beatrice See also:Cenci being among the most noticeable. The identity of the last-named portrait is very dubious; it certainly cannot have been painted See also:direct from Beatrice, who had been executed in Rome before Guido ever resided there. Many etchings are attributed to him—some from his own works, and some after other masters; they are spirited, but rather negligent. Of other works not already noticed, the following should be named :—in Rome (the Vatican), the " Crucifixion of St Peter," an example of the painter's earlier manner; in S. Lorenzo in See also:Lucina, " See also:Christ Crucified "; in Forli, the " Conception "; in Bologna, the " See also:Alms of St See also:Roch " (early), the " See also:Massacre of the Innocents," and the " Pieta, or Lament over the See also:Body of Christ " (in the church of the Mendicanti), which is by many regarded as Guido's prime executive work; in the See also:Dresden Gallery, an " Ecce Homo "; in See also:Milan (Brera Gallery), "See also:Saints Peter and Paul"; in See also:Genoa (church of S. Ambrogio), the " See also:Assumption of the Virgin "; in See also:Berlin, " St Paul the See also:Hermit and St See also:Anthony in the See also:Wilderness." The celebrated picture of " See also:Fortune " (in the Capitol) is one of Reni's finest treatments of See also:female form; as a specimen of male form, the " See also:Samson Drinking from the Jawbone of an See also:Ass " might be named beside it. One of his latest works of mark is the " See also:Ariadne," which used to be in the Gallery of the Capitol. The Louvre contains twenty of his pictures, the See also:National Gallery of See also:London seven, and others were once there, now removed to other public collections. The most interesting of the seven is the small " See also:Coronation of the Virgin," painted on See also:copper, an elegantly finished work, more See also:pretty than beautiful. It was probably painted before the master quitted Bologna for Rome. For the life and works of Guido Reni, see Bolognini, Vita di Guido Reni (1839); Passeri, Vite de' pittori; and See also:Malvasia, Felsina. Pittrice; also See also:Lanzi, Sloria pitiorica. (W. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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