Prado's Restored Guido Reni Masterpiece to Travel to Frankfurt and Return for Major 2023 Monographic Exhibition

The Museo del Prado in Madrid has completed a nine-month restoration of Guido Reni's "Atalanta and Hippomenes" (1618-19), now displayed in a special structure in the Central Gallery. The painting will travel to Frankfurt in November 2022 for an exhibition at the Städel Museum dedicated to the Bolognese painter. In spring 2023, it will return to Madrid for the largest monographic exhibition on Guido Reni in modern times, alongside the version from the Museo di Capodimonte. The restoration, funded by the Fundación Iberdrola España and executed by restorer Almudena Sánchez, included X-ray study of the artist's technique and pigments, and replacement of the frame. The work recovered its original luminosity, depth of space, and color, though the original smalt blue of the sky has undergone irreversible alteration. The Prado holds twelve other works by Reni and Italian Baroque paintings, especially Neapolitan school. Director Miguel Falomir noted plans to expand these sections in the Villanueva building with the opening of the Salón de Reinos. Curator David García Cueto, head of Italian and French painting at the Prado, is organizing the monographic exhibition. Andrés Úbeda, deputy director of the Prado, called the painting a genuine jewel and praised Reni's creation of new concepts of beauty.