Guido's Compendio: Disegno, Colore and the Idea of Summary Forms

Abstract

This thesis is about Guido Reni and his "Union of Disegno and Colore." It treats the painting as a visual summary of a complicated biography and a vast artistic consciousness. As the concept of compendio elucidates the synthetic nature of Reni’s allegory and his creative identity, I contextualize the word compendio in terms of style and the Idea in early modern Italian art. Finally, this project reviews how scholars have read Guido Reni’s paintings, and in doing so it expands the ways in which the artist and his oeuvre may be analyzed in relation to his sense of self and literacy.