Guido Reni

GUIDO RENI (Calvenzano, Bologna, 1575 - Bologna, 1642), 17th century.
"Ecce Homo".
Oil on canvas.
It has patches on the back and Repainting.
With dossier certifying the work of Massimo Pulini.
Measurements: 80 x 64 cm, 100 x 85 cm (frame).

The Ecce Homo were that of Guido Reni, are undoubtedly the culminating works of the Bolognese master. In fact, our work has many parallels with the "Man of Sorrows", preserved in the Rijksmuseum.
The intense rapture of the countenance, the flight of the gaze towards the sky, the subtle tilted gesture of the head, the crown whose thorns are cut out against the golden halo... are all elements that emulate the homonymous paintings of the Bolognese painter Guido Reni.

The theme of Ecce Homo belongs to the cycle of the Passion, and immediately precedes the episode of the Crucifixion. Following this iconography, Jesus is presented at the moment when the soldiers mock him, after crowning him with thorns, dressing him in a purple robe and placing a reed in his hand, kneeling down and exclaiming "Hail, King of the Jews!". The words "Ecce Homo" are those pronounced by Pilate when presenting Christ before the crowd; their translation is "behold the man", a phrase by which he mocks Jesus and implies that the power of Christ was not such in front of that of the leaders who were judging him there.

Undisputed master of the Roman-Bolognese classicism together with Albani and Domenichino, Guido Reni was undoubtedly the best of the three. Closely linked to the Carracci family and to the city of Bologna, they all had a similar trajectory. They trained in Bologna with Denys Calvaert, and then moved on to the Accademia degli Incamminati, directed by Ludovico Carraci. In 1600 Reni arrived in Rome, where he worked with Annibale Carracci in the Farnese Gallery. His best period begins in these years; in 1609, at Annibale's death, Reni remains as the head of the classicist school. In the city he will be protected by Scipione Borghese, the future Pope Paul V, for whom the painter will realize one of his most important works, "La Aurora" (Palazzo Rospigliosi). It shows something that will always be characteristic of Reni's style, his admiration for ancient sculpture. Starting from the classical statues, he develops an ideal of beauty and perfection that will be much admired by the following painters. In 1614 he returned to Bologna for good. Reni's style evolves in a clear direction, more and more sculptural and cold, more and more fully classicist. His mature work will be characterized by a cold palette, with silvery reflections. Finally, from the 1930s, his style became sketchy, with an unfinished appearance and a tendency towards monochrome, of great interest from a technical as well as a formal point of view.Guido Reni is currently represented in the most important art galleries around the world, including the Prado Museum, the Hermitage, the Louvre, the Metropolitan in New York and the National Gallery in London, among many others.