GUIDO RENI Digitorial

Whether on skateboards, in fantasy imagery and the gaming industry, on crucifixes, candles and other Catholic devotional merchandise: Guido’s figures and, most of all, his heads with their up-turned faces and pleading expressions are still very much with us today.

Reni lived up to the sobriquet of being an “artista divino”: upon his death in his hometown of Bologna in 1642, he was given a burial more befitting a saint, reflecting how the gifted draughtsman and painter had achieved truly cult-like status.

Astronomical prices for his artworks! His studio’s revenue may have been enormous, but Reni’s notorious “princely expenses” were equally so. Whatever he didn’t gamble away, the charitable Reni generously donated to the needy and to his many godchildren. The revered exceptional artist didn’t play by the rules of his day.

The son of a family of musicians embarked on a career as a visual artist: at age nine, Guido Reni began his training in the Bolognese workshop of the Fleming Denys Calvaert (1540–1619). Ten years later he joined an innovative art school, the Accademia degli Incamminati (“academy of those making progress”). Founded in Bologna by the Carraccis (the brothers Annibale and Agostino and their cousin Ludovico), this new school sought to reform painting.

Reni worked to the point of exhaustion, employing many assistants. Even today, we can marvel at the elaborate murals by which he left his mark on the great churches and palaces of Rome. The surviving working drawings provide information about the intensive planning that went into their making.

One of the most copied works in the history of art. Apollo steers his horse-drawn chariot through the stratosphere, while Aurora, goddess of the dawn, soars in front of him, scattering flowers. The joyous procession across the heavens brings light and fertility to the dusky landscape. Until the late 19th century, Reni’s ceiling painting – praised as “painted poetry” – was a must-see on every Grand Tourist’s visit to Rome, on a par with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and Raphael’s Stanze in the Vatican.

A small drawing containing the essence of a monumental work of art! Using ink and red chalk on a single piece of paper, Reni sketched an astonishingly precise design for the seven-metre-long ceiling painting. His admirers and, most of all, the artist himself, were convinced: Reni’s composition drawings were manifestations of the “idee celesti”, heavenly ideas by an exceptional artist.

Reni’s Roman patrons claimed that Reni could just as easily fill Caravaggio’s shoes and paint like him. Soon after arriving in Rome, Reni challenged his infamous rival. Guido’s “Christ at the Column” from the Städel’s own collection shows him adopting the typical “spotlight” effect – a Caravaggesque trademark.

For about five years, Reni and Caravaggio were competitors in the hotly contested market of Rome. One cultivated the airs of a pious nobleman, fine-featured and angelic, the other was unkempt, violent-tempered, even murderous. Contemporary commentators liked to portray not merely two rival artists but also two rival character types. In retrospect, we suspect that both were not only brilliant artists, but also divas and eccentrics. But a comparison of their works reveals that their art is indeed very different.

A painting of bloodlust, decorating a fireplace: Reni painted his spectacular “Samson” for the home of the influential and art-loving Zambeccari family of Bologna.

Slain soldiers sprawled on the ground – a terrible sight. Reni unsparingly shows the gory details of blood-splattered corpses, displaying a bodily realism familiar to us from Caravaggio. The dead bodies are scattered far and wide. The painting shows the biblical hero Samson, who purportedly slew 1000 enemy soldiers of the Philistine army. In the midst of this carnage, Reni places the figure of Samson – his body aglow in a golden light, breathtakingly beautiful. A ballet dancer in a victory pose. Who would dare paint such a contrasting combination?

His achievements cannot be explained merely in technical terms and by applying the rules of art: something else is at work in Reni’s paintings. The beauty and graceful movement of his imagery is spellbinding. His contemporaries were convinced that such “grace” could only be the result of divine inspiration.

Red, yellow, green and the radiant blue of sky and sea: the painting captivates with its rich, radiant colours. Reni shows the encounter between Bacchus and Ariadne on the island of Naxos against a distant horizon. A clear, simple picture with a powerful visual impact.

Ariadne, daughter of the king of Crete, languishes on a rock, lamenting. Her lover has just abandoned her, despite her sacrificing everything for him. The vessels under his command are sailing away in the distance. She is not yet aware, however, of Bacchus, god of wine and intoxicated revelries. But he is already pointing his index finger at his heart, which smoulders for Ariadne. The mythological story of a love between deity and man!

No master has ever risen to the top without tireless practice. Reni knew how to use different models and to modify and combine them to serve his own style. Many of his contemporaries will have known all along that the art of the “divine” painter was actually the product of ceaseless hard work.

One figure, two paintings – you don’t have to be an expert to see that Reni has recycled his Ariadne for the pose of Mary Magdalene. The ancient nude, a princess, is recast as a prostitute-turned-penitent Christian.

Once just isn’t enough: the repeated use of certain figures or pictorial formulas is a constant in Reni’s work. Once he had invented a figure and pose, he would redeploy it at will. The artist also had his studio assistants reproduce countless copies of his most popular paintings. More than 50 workshop copies of the “Penitent Magdalene” are known to us today!

Such “mass production” was only made possible by having a large studio, with at times over 80 employees. But Reni himself is said to have held the firm opinion that it didn’t matter who executed the paintings or, indeed, how many times they were repeated. What counted was the brainchild behind them, the “heavenly ideas” that came to him, and him alone!

Nothing new? Reni didn’t come up with his trademark in a vacuum. In Raphael’s “Saint Cecilia” of 1514, the patron saint of church music has her rapturous gaze on heaven. Around 1600, Reni was commissioned to make a copy of the famous painting. Even as a child in Bologna he had had ample opportunity to admire it in a church. But Reni learned more from studying the picture than merely the motif of a figure looking up!

Passionate devotion or raging pain: the upturned, beseeching look reflects extreme emotional states that are meant to appeal to the viewers’ empathy and strengthen them in their faith. Reni went to the limits of what could be said and depicted – and by doing so further demonstrated his artistic ability. He found models in ancient sculptures, revered by his contemporaries for their expressive power.

A transgressive gaze, penetrating beyond the limits of this world: Reni’s contemporaries associated the upturned gaze with the idea of love for God. Reni’s countless variations on his studio’s signature piece are inventive, even witty. For example, in his spectacular “Conversion of Saul” even the horse turns its head towards heaven and the divine light, its lips parted as if about to speak!

As if a curtain has been lifted, revealing a brief glimpse of heaven. Long before the invention of air travel, Reni has us soar above the clouds to witness a divine spectacle. Little angels lift the Virgin Mary ever higher; the upturned face of the Mother of God is full of hope.

Beautiful and supernatural: Floating upwards, the Virgin is being enveloped by a glowing light. The dreamlike image is painted, not on canvas but on a copper plate. The metallic support adds depth to the golden lustre, which, through skilful contrast, sets off the blue and pinkish-red of the Virgin’s cloak and robe.

Over the course of his subsequent long career, Reni made numerous, very similar variantions on his early Assumption, on copper, on wood, and on canvas. Images of the Marian assumption into the glory of heaven were highly desired pieces during the Counter-Reformation, not least when by Reni’s hand.

In the course of his career, Reni increasingly chose to depict the figure of the Virgin floating into the glory of heaven. There was no limit to the popularity of these pared-down and thus all the more impactful depictions. Some of them are visually overwhelming, over three metres high, in luminous, almost unreal colours.

From a miraculous image to the visualization of doctrinal theory – Reni’s Marian paintings are laden with meaning. In the 1600s, Catholic scholars were divided over the role of the Virgin in salvation history. Reni’s pictures take an unequivocal stand.

The idolized painter! Magnificent, harmonious, overwhelming the senses – the Marian pictures of the painter of “heavenly ideas” combine religious contemplation and visual pleasure. The paintings appeal to intense feelings and a sense of beauty; the angelic painter transports us to higher spheres.

Painted in bold frenetic strokes with a coarse brush, the green of the vegetation in the background bleeds into the light-brown cloth of the kneeling infant. In “Infant Christ and Saint John the Baptist” it is as if Reni intended to work up these merely preliminary forms at a later date – but didn’t.

The painting is astonishing, especially considering the period: the application is thin, all the dark-brown contours of the bodies of Christ and John remain visible. The effect is simple and immediate. The question is though: did Reni himself think the work was finished? Or was it merely an abbozzo, a work still in the early stages, in which the composition is sketched out and the first layers of paint are laid in, but which still needs to be worked up to a finish? Opinions continue to differ.

In this work, too, some things are left open, merely sketch-out. The lamb and the figure of Saint Joseph stepping through the door in the background are executed in just a few swift dashes of the brush. But things that appear unfinished were probably deliberately and intentionally placed in the painting: these passages lend a mysterious, supernatural touch to the picture.