GUIDO RENI Italian painter of the Bolognese school, and one of the most admired artists of the period of incipient decadence in Italy, was born at Calvenzanb near Bologna on Nov. 4, He studied under Denys Calvaert, a Flemish painter, who was at the head of an academy of design at Bologna. He then worked under the Caracci for a short time. Guido was faithful to the eclectic principle of the Bolognese school of paint ing. On one occasion Annibale Caracci made the remark that a style might be formed reversing that of Caravaggio in such matters as the ponderous shadows and the gross 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 Rome which remained his headquarters for 20 years. Here, in the pontificate of Paul V. (Borghese), he was greatly noted and distinguished. In the garden-house of the Rospigliosi Palace he painted the vast fresco which is justly regarded as his masterpiece—"Phoebus and the Hours preceded by Aurora." It is beyond doubt a work of pre-eminent beauty and attainment ; it is stamped with pleasurable dignity, without being effeminate. The pontifical 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. In 1622 he was called to Naples to paint the chapel of S. Gennaro, but he had to abandon this work in order to escape from the persecution of Ribera and other artists. He returned to Rome ; and then 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 stamp any great mark upon the Roman school of painting, apart from his own numerous works in the papal city.
In Bologna Guido lived in great splendour, and established a celebrated school, numbering more than two hundred scholars. He himself drew in it, even down to his latest years. He now left Bologna hardly at all; in one instance, however, he went off to Ravenna, and, along with three pupils, he painted the chapel in the cathedral with his admired picture of the "Israelites gathering Manna." His prosperity was not to last till the end, for he was dissipated, and an inveterate gambler. In his decline he sold his time at so much per hour to a number of picture dealers. Half heartedness, half-performance, blighted his product ; self-repeti tion and mere mannerism, with affectation for sentiment and vapidity for beauty, became the art of Guido. He died in Bologna on Aug. 18, 1642; and was buried with great pomp in the church of S. Domenico.
Of his numerous scholars, Simone Cantarini, named Il Pesarese, Giacomo Semenza and Francesco Gessi were among the more distinguished. Guido's most characteristic style exhibits a pre pense ideal, of form rather than character, and silvery, somewhat cold, colour. His best works have beauty, great amenity, artistic feeling and high accomplishments of manner with a certain ele ment of generalization. Both in Rome and wherever else he worked he introduced increased softness of style, which was then designated as the modern method. His pictures are mostly Scrip tural or mythologic in subject, and between two and three hundred of them are to be found in various European collections. He painted very few portraits. The so-called Beatrice Cenci in the Barberini Palace was wrongly attributed to him. Many etchings are attributed to him—some from his own works, and some of ter other masters.
Of other works not already noticed, the following should be named :—in Bologna, the "Massacre of the Innocents," and the "Pieta"; in the Dresden Gallery, an "Ecce Homo"; in Milan (Brera Gallery), "Saints Peter and Paul"; in Genoa (church of S Ambrogio), the "Assumption of the Virgin"; in Berlin, "St. Paul the Hermit and St. Anthony in the Wilderness"; in Munich, "Apollo and Marsyas"; in Rome (Capitol) "Mary Magdalene"; (Vatican) "The Crucifixion of St. Peter," an early work under the influence of Caravaggio. The Louvre contains eight of his pic tures, the National Gallery of London seven.
For the life and works of Guido Reni, see Bolognini, Vita di Guido Reni (1839) ; Passeri, Vite de' pittori; and Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice; also Lanzi, Storia pittorica.