Guido Reni: 7 works

'Guido Reni was the most famous Italian painter of his day, revered for the grace and naturalness of his serenely balanced compositions he was even referred to as "the divine Guido."'

'If contemporary gossip can be believed, Guido was a godsend to Cesari, enabling him to pluck the commission from the hand of his former apprentice and rival Caravaggio.'

'According to one biographer, Reni boasted about being able to "paint heads with their eyes uplifted a hundred different ways" to portray ecstasy or divine inspiration.'

'Guido Reni received his first training in Bologna in the studio of the Carracci family of painters, who were at the opposite artistic pole from Caravaggio.'

'There are resonances not just with the marble sculpture of Apollo but also with Michelangelo's Old Testament figure of David, but Reni has breathed life into the body through his delicate modelling and elegant silvery skin tones.'

'The choice of painter Guido Reni to depict this woman in a bejeweled turban also reveals an affinity for the foreign and exotic that was fashionable at the time.'

'Although using oil, Reni applied his color with the broad brushwork of fresco painting.'