GUIDO RENI 'The Divine'

PRESS RELEASE
GUIDO RENI "THE DIVINE"
23 NOVEMBER 2022 TO 5 MARCH 2023

Misunderstood, ignored, forgotten-in a large-scale exhibition to take place in the winter of 2022/23, the Städel Museum is rediscovering the onetime star painter of the Italian Baroque: Guido Reni (1575-1642). Despised in the nineteenth century on account of the aesthetic preferences of that era, later relegated to the sidelines by the one-sided concentration on his rival Caravaggio, Reni today no longer occupies the place he deserves in the public consciousness. In his own day, he was one of Europe's most successful and most celebrated painters, sought after by such prominent patrons as the Borghese Pope Paul V, the Duke of Mantua, and the Queen of England. A contemporary biography provides insights into his artistic activities in Bologna and Rome, but also his ambiguous personality: it portrays him as an artist both deeply religious and superstitious, both tremendously successful and hopelessly addicted to gambling.

Download the complete press release here.