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Guido Reni ( November 4 , 1575 , Calvenzano di Vergato , near Bologna - August 18 , 1642 , Bologna ) was a prominent Italian Painter of high- Baroque style. Biography He was born into a family of musicians, and as a child of nine apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert . Soon, Albani and Domenichino also began working in Calvaert's studio. By age twenty, Guido, like the others, had joined Calvaert's rival studio, the Accademia Degli Incamminati in Bologna led by Lodovico Caracci . They were to form the prolific and successful school of Bolognese painters who followed the Carraccis to Rome . Like many Bolognese painters, Guido became eclectic in style and thematic. He is also reputed to have trained with a painter by the name of Ferrantini. Work in Rome In 1602, he travelled to Rome with Albani, and initially assisted the teams led by Annibale Carracci in fresco decorations of the Farnese Palace . By 1604-5, he received an independent Vatican commission for a ''Crucifixion of St. Peter'' Altarpiece. Then after a few year sojourn in Bologna, he returned to Rome to become one of the pre-eminent painters during the papacy of Paul V ( Borghese ). Reni's masterpiece is considered to be the fresco in the ceiling of the large central hall of garden palace, ''Casino dell'Aurora'' located in the grounds of the . Reni in this painting is allying himself more with the sterner Cavaliere D'Arpino and Francesco Albani "School" of mytho-historic painting, and less with Cortona's excesses. There is little concession to perspective, and the vibrantly colored style is antithetical to the tenebrism of Carravagio 's followers. Payments showed that he was payed in 247 scudi and 54 baiocchi on September 24, 1616 for completion. He also completed frescoes in the Paoline Chapel of 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; but, because he felt underpaid by the ministers, the artist left for Bologna. This left Domenichino as the pre-eminent artist in Rome, although Reni's studio in Bologna became fairly prolific in producing canvases for export. Work in Outside of Rome and in Bologna In later years, he moved to Naples to complete a commission to paint the chapel of S. Gennaro. However, the painters resident in Naples-- Corenzio , Caracciolo and Ribera -- were strongly resistant to the entry of competitors into their market, and conspired, according to rumor, to poison or bring him to harm. He now returned to Rome; but he finally left that city abruptly, in the pontificate of Urban VIII , in consequence of an offensive reprimand administered to him by Cardinal Spinola . Returning to Bologna more or less permanently, Guido established a successful and prolific studio. In Ravenna, he painted the chapel in the cathedral with his admired picture of the ''Israelites gathering Manna.''Reni, after departing Rome, painted in a disparate set of styles, true to the eclectic tastes of many of Carracci trainees. For example, his altarpiece for ''Samson Victorious'' formulates stylized poses characteristic of . His turbulently violent ''Massacre of the Innocents'' (Pinacoteca, Bologna) is painted in a manner reminiscent of Raphael. .]] Of his numerous pupils, Simone Cantarini , named "Il Pesarese," counts as the most distinguished; he painted an admirable portrait, now in the Bolognese Gallery. The Uffizi Gallery holds a self-portrait. Two other noted pupils were Giacomo Semenza and Francesco Gessi. His themes are mostly Scriptural or mythological in subject. The portraits which he executed are few — those of Sixtus V , Bernardino Cardinal Spada and the so‑called Beatrice Cenci being among the most noticeable. The identity of the last-named portrait is very doubtful; it certainly cannot have been painted direct from Beatrice, who had been executed in Rome before Guido ever lived there. Many etchings are attributed to him, some from his own works, and some after other masters; they are spirited, but rather negligent. Partial anthology of works
The Louvre contains twenty of his pictures, the National Gallery Of London seven, and others once there have now been removed to other public collections. The most interesting of the seven is the small "Coronation of the Virgin," painted on copper. It was probably painted before the master left Bologna for Rome. References External links
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