2), born at Bologna, and the son of a professor of music. His
father intended that Guido also should be a musician, and the poor boy was
much persecuted on account of his love for drawing. But after many
struggles the boy came into the Caracci school, and was soon a favorite
pupil there.

When still young he listened with great attention to a lecture from
Annibale, in which he laid down the rules which should govern a true
painter. Guido resolved to follow these rules closely, and soon he painted
so well that he was accused of trying to establish a new system of
painting. At last Ludovico Caracci turned against him and dismissed him
from his school.

[Illustration: FIG. 51.--AURORA. _By Guido Reni._]

The young artist went to Rome; but his persecutions did not cease, and it
seemed to be his fate to excite the jealousy of other painters. Now, when
so much time has elapsed, we know that Guido was not a very great master,
and had he painted in the days of Michael Angelo he would not have been
thought so. But art had lowered its standard, and Guido's works were
suited to the taste of his time; he had a high conception of beauty, and
he tried to reach it in his pictures.

In the course of his career Guido really painted in three styles. His
earliest pictures are the strongest; those of his middle period are
weaker, because he seemed only to strive to represent grace and sweetness;
his latest pictures are careless and unequal in execution, for he grew
indifferent to fame, and became so fond of gaming that he only painted in
order to get money to spend in this sinful folly.

His masterpiece in Rome was the "Aurora," on a ceiling of the Rospigliosi
Palace; it represents the goddess of the dawn as floating before the
chariot of Apollo, or Phoebus, the god of the sun. She scatters flowers
upon the earth, he holds the reins over four piebald and white horses,
while Cupid, with his lighted torch, floats just above them. Around the
chariot dance seven graceful female figures which represent the Hours, or
Horae. I have been asked why seven was the number; the ancients had no
fixed number for the Hours; sometimes they were spoken of as two, again
three, and even in some cases as ten. It has always seemed to me that ten
was the number chosen by Guido, for in that case there would naturally be
three out of sight, on the side of the chariot which is not seen (Fig.
51).

[Illustration: FIG. 52.--BEATRICE CENCI.]

The portrait of B