ANDREA RENZI

(Italian, 19th century)

After Guido Reni

AURORA

Apollo in his Chariot preceded by Dawn

Oil on Canvas

25 x 57 1/4 Inches

Signed and inscribed Lower Right 'A. Renzi Copio Roma'

Framed in a Period Carved and Burnished Gilt-wood Frame

An exceptional 19th century copy of the original ceiling fresco in the Casino Rospigliosi in the Palazzo Pallavicini in Rome, this masterfully painted work exemplifies the restrained classicism of which Reni was the greatest seventeenth century exponent. The frescoed ceiling of the large central hall of the garden palace, Casino dell'Aurora, painted for the Borghese Pope, Paul V, is universally considered to be Reni’s masterpiece. This massive fresco depicts Apollo in his Chariot, preceded by Dawn (Aurora), bringing light to the world. There is little concession to perspective, and the vibrantly colored style is antithetical to the tenebrism of Caravaggio’s followers which held sway at the time. The work is restrained in its classicism, copying poses from Roman sarcophagi, and showing far more compositional elegance and simplicity than Carracci's riotous Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne in the Farnese Palace, also of the same period. This wonderful painting is in excellent condition with no damage or restoration and, happily, retains its original and exquisite nineteenth-century frame.