GUIDES 1 GUIDO RENI. 



581 



esteemed him very highly, as did likewise Charles 

 V., whose interests he had promoted in his negotia- 

 tions at Naples, and who, when his courtiers once 

 complained that he preferred the Florentines to them, 

 answered, " I can make a hundred Spanish grandees 

 in a minute, but I cannot make one Guicciardini in a 

 hundred years." When Alessandro de' Medici was 

 murdered by one of his relations (Lorenzino, 1536), 

 and the Florentines, under the direction of cardinal 

 Cibo, wished to restore the republican constitution, 

 Guicciardini opposed it with all his power, and main- 

 tained, that to preserve the state from becoming the 

 prey of foreigners or of factions, the monarchical 

 form of government ought to be retained. His elo- 

 quence and the force of his arguments triumphed, 

 and Cosmo de' Medici was proclaimed grand-duke of 

 Florence. Guicciardini died in 1540, and, according 

 to his own directions, was buried, without pomp, in 

 the church Santa Felicita in Florence. It is related 

 of him, that his love for study was so great, that, like 

 Leibnitz, he often passed two or three days without 

 rest or food. One of his works, which was after- 

 wards translated into French, his Advice on political 

 Subjects, was published in 1525, at Antwerp. The 

 Florentine J. B. Adriani (who died 1579), in his 

 Istoria de' suoi Tempi (new edition, 1823), which 

 may be regarded as a continuation of the work of 

 Guicciardini, has given a good narrative of events 

 between 1536 and 1574. This work was first publish- 

 ed after the deatli of the author in 1583. The reader 

 of Guicciardini is sometimes offended by a want of 

 method. A more important defect, however, is, that 

 his statements cannot always be depended on as de- 

 rived from the best sources, so that he must be read 

 with caution. One of the best criticisms on Guic- 

 ciardini is contained in Leopold Ranke's Zur Kritik 

 neuerer Geschichtschreiber (Leipsic and Berlin, 1824.) 

 Guicciardini has often been called the Italian Poly- 

 bius. Of the twenty books of his history, the four 

 last are unfinished, and are to be considered only as 

 rough drafts. He is much too prolix, and the satirist 

 Boccalini, in his Ragguagli di Parnaso, makes a 

 Spartan, who has been condemned to read Guic- 

 ciardini for having used three words when he could 

 have expressed his meaning in two, faint away at the 

 first sentence. Guicciardini also wrote poems. In 

 the beginning of a poetical epistle, entitled Supplica- 

 zione d'ltalia al Cristianissimo Re Francesco Pri- 

 o, he expresses the feeling so commonly exhibi- 

 ted by Italian writers, ever since the time of Dante, 

 in regard to the distracted state of their country. 

 The epistle begins thus : 



Italia afflitta, nuda e nt'seranda, 



i'h' or d<f principi suoi stanca si lagna, 



A Te, Francesco, guesta carta manda. 



GUIDES ; in some armies, persons particularly 

 acquainted with the ground, who serve in the staff, 

 to give the necessary information, and point out the 

 best route for an army. As it is, however, impossi- 

 ble always to have officers of this kind, some armies 

 have geographical engineers attached to the staff, 

 whose particular studies are geography and topogra- 

 phy. Napoleon gave the name of guides to his first 

 body of guards, formed afler he had been on the 

 point of being surprised and taken prisoner in a 

 castle on the Mincio. Sec his own account, Las 

 Cases' Memorial, &c. vol. ii., p. 3, ed. of 1824. 



GUIDO AHETINO. See Aretino. 



GUIDO RENI ; the most charming and graceful 

 painter whom Italy ever produced. His family name 

 was Reni, but he is always called Guido. In fact, 

 many of the old masters are best known by their 

 Christian names. He was born at Bologna, in 1575. 

 His father, Samuel Reni, an excellent musician, at 

 first intended that his son should devote himself to 



music, for which he showed some talent ; but he soon 

 discovered in the boy a greater genius for painting, 

 and had him instructed by the Dutch artist Dionysius 

 Calvaert, who was then in high repute at Bologna. 

 In this celebrated school, Guido is said to have stud- 

 ied chiefly the works of Albert Durer. This be- 

 comes probable if we consider some of his earlier 

 works, in which, particularly in the drapery, occa- 

 sional resemblance may be traced to the style of 

 Albert Durer. In the mean time, the school of the 

 Caracci, at Bologna, on account of its novelty ai-d 

 superior taste, began to eclipse the former, raid Guido 

 joined it in his twentieth year. He soor. gave his 

 teachers occasion to admire his talents, and is even 

 said to have excited the jealousy of Annibal Caracci. 

 Guide's desire to behold the treasures of art in Rome, 

 induced him to visit that city, with two of his fellow 

 students, Domenichino and Albani. There he saw 

 some of the paintings of Caravaggio, who was great- 

 ly admired for his powerful and expressive (though 

 often coarse and low) manner, which Guido imitated. 

 His reputation soon spread, and cardinal Borghese 

 employed him to paint a crucifixion of St Peter for 

 the church Delle Tre Fontane. The powerful man- 

 ner of this picture, and several others of the same 

 period, which Guido did not, however, long retain, 

 increased his fame ; and when, at the cardinal's re- 

 quest, he completed the Aurora, so beautifully en- 

 graved by Morghen, the admiration was universaj. 

 Paul V., at that time, employed him to embellish a 

 chapel on Monte Cavallo, with scenes from the life 

 of the virgin Mary. Guido accomplished, this work 

 to the satisfaction of the pope, and was next intrust- 

 ed with the painting of another chapel in Santa- 

 Maria-Maggiore. These works were followed by so 

 many orders, that he was unable to execute them all. 

 To this period his Fortuna, and the portraits of Six- 

 tus V. and cardinal Spada, maybe assigned. Guido's 

 paintings are generally considered as belonging to 

 three different manners and periods. The first com- 

 prises those pictures which resemble the manner of 

 the Caracci, and particularly that of Caravaggio. 

 Deep shades, narrow and powerful lights, strong 

 colouring, in short, an effort after great effect, 

 distinguish his works of this first period. The 

 second manner is completely opposed to the first, 

 and was adopted by Guido himself as a contrast to 

 the works of Caravaggio, with whom he was in con- 

 stant controversy. Its principal features are light 

 colouring, little shade, an agreeable though often 

 superficial treatment of the subject. It is quite pe- 

 culiar to Guido. His Aurora forms the transition 

 from the first to the second style of his paintings. A 

 third period commences at the time when Guido 

 worked with too much haste to finish his pieces, and 

 was more intent upon the profits of his labour than 

 upon its fame. It may be distinguished by a green- 

 ish gray, and altogether unnatural colouring, and by 

 a general carelessness and weakness. This last man- 

 ner is particularly remarkable, in the large standard 

 with the patron saint of Bologna, and more or less 

 in a number of other paintings of that period. Dur- 

 ing the government of pope Urban V 1 1 1 . , G uido quar- 

 relled with his treasurer, cardinal Spinola, respect- 

 ing the price of a picture, and returned to Bologna. 

 There he had already executed his St Peter and Paul 

 for the house Zampiere, and the Murder of the In. 

 nocents for the Dominican church, and was on the 

 point of embellishing the chapel of the saints with 

 his pictures, when Tie was called back to Rome, 

 loaded with honours, and received by the pope him- 

 self in the most gracious manner. But he soon ex- 

 perienced new difficulties, and accepted an invitation 

 to go to Naples. Believing himself unsafe at this 

 place, on account of the hatred of the Neapolitan 



