Guido Reni

The great 17th-centuy Italian painter Guido Reni was a master of the religious subject par excellence. He was celebrated during his lifetime for his graceful, classical style characterised by refined colours, soft modelling and a gentle emotional sensibility inspired by Raphael.

Reni was born in 1575 in Bologna. He trained in the Bolognese workshop of the influential painter Denys Calvaert, where Reni was exposed to the advantages of using copper plates, whose smooth, reflective surfaces allowed the painter to achieve a luminous, porcelain-like finish. Reni late joined the Accademia degli Incamminati led by Ludovico Carracci.

The painter’s reputation grew, earning him numerous important commissions in Rome, where he was summoned in 1601 by Cardinal Emilio Sfondrati (1560–1618), nephew of Pope Gregory XIV. Between 1602 and 1613, he spent time in Rome where he was reported to have met Caravaggio and produced many of his best-known works, such as Crucifixion of St Peter (1604–05) for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini. Among other works painted during this time is his fresco masterpiece L’Aurora. Painted between 1613 and 1614 for the Casino dell’Aurora, a garden house adjacent to the Palazzo Pallavicni-Rospigliosi, the fresco was commissioned by Cardinale Scipione Borghese.

Reni returned to Bologna around 1613 and 1614, where he would be based until his death in 1642. He established a successful studio, continuing to receive commissions and producing iconic works including Saint Dominic in Glory (1613–15) for the Basilica of San Domenico, Saint Sebastian (c.1615) — one of his most reproduced works — and Atalanta and Hippomenes (1620–25; National Musem of Capodimonte, Naples).

Through his studios, Reni fostered nearly 200 pupils, helping the artist establish a wide-ranging influence on the late Baroque period. Some of his most distinguished pupils included Simone Cantarini, called il Pesarese. Reni’s works now belong in the collections of the Louvre in Paris, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the National Gallery in London and major institutions around the world.