The Separation of Night from Day happens in the story of the Creation. A winged celestial being or spirit, who has variously been called Dawn or Twilight, separates two figures with two wands. Day, a scantily clad young man, moves swiftly towards the…
In the eyes of G. B. Passeri, a contemporary biographer, Guido Reni was "the noblest, most majestic painter who ever lived- not only in my own opinion, but by common consent.” Reni, the most celebrated Italian painter of the seventeenth century, was…
“The Archangel Michael” is one of Guido’s most famous works painted in his second manner when he was strongly under Raphael’s influence. The single devotional figures of the Archangel Michael usually depict him as combining the characters of captain…
This painting is a late work of Reni, demonstrating qualities of rapidity and self-assurance. At that time Reni had abandoned the smooth finish that had been characteristic of his earlier work in favor of a slightly looser and more animated surface.…
St. Michael Vanquishing Satan is created by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael. The painting was commissioned by Pope Leo X. In the painting, the archangel Michael standing on top of Satan's back with his right foot, while holding a spear in…
Guido Reni uses one of his most iconic compositions in this work. Sebastian was a Roman soldier who suffered martyrdom for his Christian faith under the reign of Diocletian and Maximian at the end of the third century. He became a patron saint of the…
According to Christian tradition, after meeting Christ, Mary Magdalene regretted her former sinful ways. The claims that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute leading a promiscuous way of life before meeting Jesus and repenting of her sinful ways, are…
The Pala della Peste (Altarpiece of the Bubonic Plague) depicts the Madonna and Child in Glory with the Patron Saints of Bologna: Petronius, Francis, Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Proculus of Bologna, and Florian.
This work features two naked bodies in basically sideways motion, and its subject is the race between the man-resisting girl Atalanta and her ardent suitor, Hippomenes; he has thrown a golden apple to distract her, and she is stooping to pick it up.…
The Palazzo Sampieri frescoes are a set of paintings by Annibale, Agostino and Ludovico Carracci in the Palazzo Sampieri in Bologna. They form the last surviving collection of works by the three artists. Hercules Guided by Virtue is the ceiling…