Author Description

Guido Reni (4 November 1575 in Calvenzano; 18 August 1642 in Bologna) was an Italian painter and etcher of the Baroque era.During the first period of his activity, Reni joined the then-dominant in Italian painting naturalistic style, and, like other students of Carracci, fell under the influence of Caravaggio. Reni's naturalistic aspiration was especially vividly expressed in the Vatican Crucifixion, which by its concept and the types of figures are very similar to the images of tortures, common among Italian artists of that time. Among Reni's works of the same type is, in addition to the "Beating of the Infants" mentioned above, a painting by the Berlin Museum "St. Anthony and Paul the Hermits". In the midst of his career, Reni tried to convey a warmer and more gentle feeling and achieve beauty and grace, as, for example, in his Aurora in Palazzo Rospilosi. In the last period of his work, he depicted types of purely feminine beauty and gave his beauties too soft blurred forms, the color of Reni previously very fresh and bright, at this time his style became pale and dull. The religious paintings of his late work, in particular, were judged far more critically in the 20th century than before. As early as 1908, there was mention of "excessive sentimentality".