Guido Reni

Guido Reni, one of the most celebrated painters throughout Europe, was born, raised and spent his entire life in Bologna. Training in the workshop of Flemish artist Denijs Calvaert then under the Carraccis’ guiding hand, he renewed Italian painting by always looking backwards, engaging in a silent contest with the masters of the past, in particular with Raphael, on whose St. Cecilia altarpiece he could freely gaze in Bologna. Attracting attention during a short spell in Rome in the early 17th century with his fresco of Aurora in the Casino Rospigliosi, he rose through the ranks at an early age to become one of the highest-paid artists of his day, dominating the art scene in Bologna in the first half of the 17th century. His gleaming compositions imbued with a deep spirituality became a benchmark for Catholic religious art. A number his paintings are still considered iconic to this day: his Samson in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna with its almost “Hellenistic” grace; his Atalanta and Hippomenes in the Museo del Prado in Madrid or the version in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, both of which can be dated to the end of the 1610s.