Speaker: Dr. Catherine R Puglisi, Professor of Art History Rutgers, The State University Department of Art History
At the height of his international fame, Guido Reni surprised his public with a series of stunning altarpieces and gallery pictures in his second Manner. By drastically lightening his palette, Reni ignored his former teacher Ludovico Carracci’s warning that a painter ought to reflect a whole year before applying a single brushstroke of lead white to a painting. Examining select paintings by Reni in his new style, this paper explores the visual evidence against early critics’ assessments and theoretical texts about the use of white pigment and proposes various triggers for his artistic choice. “Bianchezza” resounds today with timely social issues, and the final part of the lecture opens discussion of the cultural context and implications of Reni’s whitened aesthetic in representing skin color.
An alumna of The Institute of Fine Arts, Catherine Puglisi is Professor of Art History at Rutgers University and a specialist in Italian Baroque art. She is author of Caravaggio (Phaidon Press, 1998), Francesco Albani (Yale University Press, 1999), and most recently co-author of Art and Faith in the Venetian World: Venerating Christ as Man of Sorrows (Brepols, 2019). She co-curated the exhibition, “Passion in Venice” (New York, Museum of Biblical Art, 2011) and co-edited the volume New Perspectives on the Man of Sorrows (Medieval Institute Publications, 2013). Her current research addresses radical style change in the Baroque.
