Richard E. Spear

This is an intelligent and attentive examination of the relationship between Guido Reni's paintings, particularly of Christ and of penitent women saints; an aesthetic of 'grace' and the way in which it mediates the spirituality of figures such as Teresa of Avila and her antecedents, going back to St Bernard and even to Gregory of Nyssa; and the actualities of Reni's own life, so far as it can be reconstructed, and especially the transgressive aspects of his psychosexuality (a morbid phobia of sex which might or might not have been virginal) and gambling: Richard Spear is quite frank about his intention to explore 'psychohistory', as well as the impact of his own wife's feminism and his brother's gayness on the way in which he scrutinises art himself. The result is a thoughtful and stimulating evaluation of paintings which are precise and intentional expressions of a theory of the sacred which is the opposite of that represented, for example, by the sensualism and earthiness of Caravaggio. Richard Spear is not afraid to speculate about the kind of 'queer eye' which might have cultivated these works - he is explicit about the queer eye which has appreciated them - but this book does not stray further from responsible art history than it ought, and in demonstrating, persuasively I think, that there is very much more going on in Guido Reni's paintings than mere prettiness, it does the artist great service. As with many of the books published by Yale University Press, this one is seductively illustrated too.… (mehr)