106 THE FINE ARTS. 
the distribution of the colors wonderful, and the chiaroscuro and the grada- 
tion of the tints are lovely in the extreme. With respect to the celestial 
glory this cupola is unique in its kind. He did not succeed so Well with 
the cupola of the Jesuits’ church in Naples; but this was owing to its con- 
struction, it being provided with ribs and having an excessive quantity of 
gilding. Lanfranco and his followers applied themselves chiefly to the study 
of the distribution of masses and of movements, after the example of 
Correggio; yet what they sought was the appearance without the arduous 
study of the principles of art. The pictures of Lanfranco are distributed 
in great number through Italy and some through Spain and France. There 
are also several of them in Vienna and Dresden; but his fresco-paintings 
are of more value than his pictures in oil. 
Guido Reni, born in Bologna 1575, was to have been a musician; but he 
preferred the study of painting under Calvaert, who directed his attention 
to Albert Direr’s works. Here Albano and Domenichino were his fellow- 
pupils; but all three went over to the school of the Caraccis. Guido accom- 
panied Annibale Caracci to Rome, where he soon acquired considerable 
reputation: his first work was a Crucifixion of St. Peter, in the Chiesa 
delle tre Fontane, a picture in which he endeavored with great success to 
excel Caravaggio in chiaroscuro. This picture and several others after- 
wards came to Paris. One of the finest fresco-paintings in Rome is the 
Aurora which Guido painted for Cardinal Borghese, but which during the 
recent events in Rome has suffered considerable damage. Guido also 
decorated with his pencil the chapel on Monte Cavallo and one in Sta. 
Maria Maggiore. He soon afterwards removed to Bologna, where there 
were already several of his paintings ; but he was summoned back to Rome 
to complete his unfinished works. He then repaired once more to Bologna 
and afterwards to Naples. But an attempt being there made upon his life, 
he soon left that city and returned to Bologna, where he finished the chapel 
of St. Dominic and painted several pictures for the Chiesa de’ Mendicanti. 
This is not the place to enumerate the countless works of Guido, who at 
length acquired such a facility that he seemed to design with the pencil. 
There exist also many paintings which go by his name, but which are either 
copies of his pictures or have been produced by his pupils and merely 
finished by him. Guido’s greatest excellence doubtless consists in the 
ideal beauty which animates his heads. In his female heads and even in 
those of youthful males, his study of the ancient group of the Niobids is 
everywhere visible. The Madonna of the Florence Museum (pl. 15, 
jig. 10) and the John the Baptist of the Paris Museum (jig. 11) may serve 
as specimens. The countenances of his old men and apostles he selected 
from fine natural ones, because among the models of the antique none of 
religious inspiration have been preserved. For the representation of the 
other parts of the body he likewise adhered to nature, without ennobling 
them by means of the antique; so that the bodies are frequently not in har- 
mony with the beautiful heads. An example of this, and also of what we 
shall have to say respecting his draperies, is furnished in the S¢. Francis 
from the Paris Museum (fig. 5). Guido’s flesh color has too great a tendeney 
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