ATALANTA AND HIPPOMENES BY GUIDO RENI THE 17TH CENTURY

The classical, elegant, and intellectual tone chosen for the canvas Atalanta and Hippomenes is instead quite different; it is by the Bolognese painter Guido Reni and was painted around 1625. The painter shows you a moment of a race between the unbeatable hunter Atalanta and the clever Hippomenes, who distracts his rival by letting three golden apples fall to the ground, one after the other. Atalanta stops three times to pick them up, and Hippomenes wins the race. Rather than targeting the dynamics of the race, Guido Reni chooses to represent it by focusing on the intersection of the two opponents' luminous bodies, with the brown-blue background of the ground and the sky. Their smooth, perfect bodies fit into a play of gestures and responses, as fluid as choreography.