1575-1642 Italian Guido Reni Galleries Born in Bologna 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. Soon after, he was joined in that studio by Albani 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 (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. By late 1601, Reni and Albani had moved to Rome to work with the teams led by Annibale Carracci in fresco decoration of the Farnese Palace. During 1601-1604, his main patron was cardinal Sfondrato. 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 (Borghese). From 1607-1614, he was one of the painters patronized by Borghese. Abduction of Deianira, 1620-1621.Reni's frescoed ceiling of the large central hall of garden palace, Casino dell'Aurora located in the grounds of the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, is considered his masterpiece. The casino was originally a pavilion commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese; 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[5] in the Farnese. Reni in this painting is allies himself more with the sterner Cavaliere d'Arpino,Lanfranco, and Albani "School" of mytho-historic painting, and less with the more crowded frescoes characteristic of Pietro da Cortona. There is little concession to perspective, and the vibrantly colored style is antithetical to the tenebrism of Caravaggio'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 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.  Related Paintings of Guido Reni :. | Saint Sebastian | Salome with the Head of John the Baptist | Thronende Madonna mit den Stadtheiligen Bolognas | Hercules on the Pyre (mk05) | Portrat eines Madchens mit Krone |
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CARRACCI, Antonio
Italian Baroque Era Painter, ca.1583-1618 Painter, son of Agostino Carracci. He was born either c. 1583 (Baglione) or in 1589 (Bellori). His mother was a Venetian courtesan named Isabella. After his father's death, he joined the Roman household of his uncle Annibale Carracci. While Antonio may have collaborated with other studio assistants on the wall frescoes (1603-4) of the Galleria Farnese and the decoration (1606; commissioned from Francesco Albani) of some rooms in the Palazzo Mattei di Giove, Rome, his earliest undisputed works date from after Annibale's death in 1609. At that time, according to Monsignor G. B. Agucchi (Malvasia), Antonio returned briefly to Bologna, with the intention of joining Ludovico Carracci's studio, but the proposed collaboration came to nothing. A frescoed Vision of St Francis in the lower oratory of S Colombano was most probably painted during this Bolognese sojourn, and his Burial of Christ (Rome, Gal. Borghese) dates from c. 1609. He returned to Rome in 1610 and assisted Guido Reni in the Pauline Chapel of the Palazzo del Quirinale, where he painted Virtues and other subsidiary figures on the walls.
ivar nyberg
Swedish, 1855-1925
Hyppolyte Victor Sebron
1801-1897