Dublin Core
Title
Aurora
Description
The Aurora is a large Baroque ceiling fresco painted in 1614 by Guido Reni for the Casino, or garden house, adjacent to the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, in Rome. The casino and the fresco were commissioned by the Cardinal Scipione Borghese.
The Aurora displayed within a painted frame and depicts from right to left, Aurora (the goddess of dawn) in a golden billowing dress with her garlands flies over a dim-lit landscape, leading a blond Apollo in his horse-drawn chariot, surrounded by a chain of female "hours", bringing light to the world. It could also be described as the Triumph of Apollo led by the Aurora. Above the quadriga, in the sky, flies the putto Phosphorus (morning star) with a torch. Zephyrs blow winds at either end.
The Aurora belongs to Guido Reni’s second manner as it was passing into the latest phase, when his tones grew silvery and gray and his women became insipid and pretty. The fresco uses classic forms and warm, agreeable color. Reni’s treatment of the small, limp hands indicates a decadence from the heroic and noble women, to whom the old masters gave energized, shapely large hands.
The style of the work is classically restrained and mimics poses from ancient Roman sarcophagi, that were on display in the cardinal's collection. The chariot procession recalls the central fresco in The Loves of the Gods, painted by Annibale Carracci in the Farnese Palace, which depicts the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne; however, here there is far more classical sobriety in a restricted number of figures, with little emotion, without overemphasizing muscular anatomy, and hearkening beyond mannerism back to a high-renaissance restraint. There is little attention to the perspective.
From the seventeenth-century on, Reni’s figures were praised for the “airs of the heads,” a notion with astrological and medical connotations, while the papal physician and art critic Giulio Mancini described Reni’s manner as “spirited,” a term suggestive of the airy movement Reni so powerfully represented in his Aurora[1].
The Aurora displayed within a painted frame and depicts from right to left, Aurora (the goddess of dawn) in a golden billowing dress with her garlands flies over a dim-lit landscape, leading a blond Apollo in his horse-drawn chariot, surrounded by a chain of female "hours", bringing light to the world. It could also be described as the Triumph of Apollo led by the Aurora. Above the quadriga, in the sky, flies the putto Phosphorus (morning star) with a torch. Zephyrs blow winds at either end.
The Aurora belongs to Guido Reni’s second manner as it was passing into the latest phase, when his tones grew silvery and gray and his women became insipid and pretty. The fresco uses classic forms and warm, agreeable color. Reni’s treatment of the small, limp hands indicates a decadence from the heroic and noble women, to whom the old masters gave energized, shapely large hands.
The style of the work is classically restrained and mimics poses from ancient Roman sarcophagi, that were on display in the cardinal's collection. The chariot procession recalls the central fresco in The Loves of the Gods, painted by Annibale Carracci in the Farnese Palace, which depicts the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne; however, here there is far more classical sobriety in a restricted number of figures, with little emotion, without overemphasizing muscular anatomy, and hearkening beyond mannerism back to a high-renaissance restraint. There is little attention to the perspective.
From the seventeenth-century on, Reni’s figures were praised for the “airs of the heads,” a notion with astrological and medical connotations, while the papal physician and art critic Giulio Mancini described Reni’s manner as “spirited,” a term suggestive of the airy movement Reni so powerfully represented in his Aurora[1].
Creator
Guido Reni
Source
Clark, Anthony M. “A Late, Great Guido Reni.” The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 54, no. 2 (1960): 3–7. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4119872.
Gage, Frances. " Air, Wind, Sun, Spirit", Nuncius 32, 3 (2017): 658-682, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/18253911-03203007.
Rowe, G. M. E. "THE MASTERPIECES OF PAINTING.: III. THE AURORA. GUIDO RENI." Congregationalist (1891-1901), Feb 23, 1893, 297, https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/masterpieces-painting/docview/124233812/se-2?accountid=10598.
Gage, Frances. " Air, Wind, Sun, Spirit", Nuncius 32, 3 (2017): 658-682, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/18253911-03203007.
Rowe, G. M. E. "THE MASTERPIECES OF PAINTING.: III. THE AURORA. GUIDO RENI." Congregationalist (1891-1901), Feb 23, 1893, 297, https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/masterpieces-painting/docview/124233812/se-2?accountid=10598.
Publisher
Wikimedia Commons contributors, "File:Guido Reni - L'Aurora di Guido Reni nelle arti decorative.jpg," Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Guido_Reni_-_L%27Aurora_di_Guido_Reni_nelle_arti_decorative.jpg&oldid=475059556 (accessed December 1, 2021).
Date
circa 1612-1614
Contributor
Jenny Chen
Format
280 × 700 cm
Type
Fresco
Coverage
Casino Rospigliosi Pallavicini, Rome, Italy