Minneapolis Institute of Art

Two Female Allegories Representing Fire and Air (Cartoon for a Fresco)

Guido Reni

Date

c. 1614

Medium

Black chalk on fifteen joined pieces of paper, laid down on canvas

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Guido Reni executed this monumental cartoon (full-scale preparatory drawing) representing Fire and Air for a frescoed chimneypiece in the Palazzo dell'Armi Marescalchi, Bologna, around 1614. (The palace was damaged during World War II, but the fresco survives and remains in the building.) Reni returned to his hometown in 1614 after a triumphant decade working in Rome, where he was employed by the papal family, among other illustrious patrons. The large, idealized allegories dressed in ample drapery are reminiscent of the ancient sculpture Reni studied in Rome and are characteristic of Reni's style in this period. Drawn in black chalk on 15 sheets of paper glued together, the composition is almost entirely worked out at this stage--very few details were changed in the mural. As cartoons were often destroyed in the process of transferring the design to the wall surface, Reni and his assistants must have used a substitute cartoon in the process, so this cartoon could be preserved--either to be reused by the studio in some capacity, or to be sold to a collector. Italy, Europe

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