GUIDO RENIvanian:“His personal life was disastrous, a swamp of neuroses. Reni had the misfortune to
GUIDO RENIvanian:“His personal life was disastrous, a swamp of neuroses. Reni had the misfortune to be a gambling addict, always badly in debt, and turning out masses of hackwork to stay afloat. It had been surmised, no doubt rightly, that his gambling was inspired by masochism - losing was a form of self-flagellation for the sin of being alive…He was socially inept, agonizingly aware of his poor education (which hampered him as a history painter and made him hopelessly awkward with sophistcates and scholars) and an extreme closet case. It was commonly assumed that he lived and died a virgin. He was not only a daily church-goer but morbidly superstitious. Women terrified him - he suspected them all of being witches, a suspicion they could allay only if they showed themselves to be the Virgin Mary, a hard thing to prove - and he could not bear it if anyone except his own mother touched his laundry.” - Robert Hughes -- source link