Customer Reviews

The Divine Guido: Religion, Sex, Money, and Art in the World of Guido Reni

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Guido Reni (1575-1642) was an Italian artist from Bologna who lived during the time of the great baroque artists Caravaggio, Rembradt, Vermeer, Tiepolo, Velásquez, Poussin, Zurbarán etc - all great artists whose reputations grow with the passing of centuries. Oddly enough the works of Reni are highly recognizable and his output was considerable, but he tended to soften the drama of painters like Caravaggio et al and opted instead for a feminization of his subjects. In this excellent monograph author Richard Spear explores the life and times of this enigmatic artist and offers some insights as to why his work has not embrace fame.

Reni was a strange man - very pious, virginal, seemingly more interested in the money of making art than in the works he left for posterity, and besieged by his demons of his belief in witchcraft and his fear of physical contact. He did not tolerate criticism and instead developed a group of followers as students many of whom ultimately became better known the Reni. But at the same time Reni's approach to his subjects - almost exclusively religious or mythological - was that of a passionately pious person. His many depictions of the assumption, the nativity, and the crucifixion are breathtakingly beautiful if unabashedly 'pretty'. Spear's analyses of his paintings is more solid than his examination of the life style of this Baroque artist, but as a document devoted to a rather forgotten painter, this monograph of Guido Reni is the finest available. Grady Harp, June 11

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. My review may be found in "Art History" vol. 21, no. 3 (September 1998), 445-48. In the reiew I mention: "It offers the first extensive twentieth century analysis of Reni's personality and environment. Spear's relatively non-reductive research methodology is an interesting shift of study 'from the "outside" to the "inside"' of the subject (Spear p. 9). This method is used in addition to the standard revisionist focus on the artist from his/her own time, rather than from our time. 'The "Divine" Guido' is a welcome addition to the new historicist studies from publishers such as Yale University, Cambridge University, Prentice Hall and Thames & Hudson."