The Annunication Chapel in the Quirinal Palace, Rome: Paul V, Guido Reni, and the Virgin Mary

In 1610, Guido Reni designed and supervised a fresco cycle depicting the life of the Virgin for Paul V's private chapel in his summer home, the Quirinal Palace. Though the chapel has been cited as a harbinger of the fully developed “Baroque” style, a closer examination of its meaning and how its visual qualities serve it reveals something quite different. Rather than a dynamic interior that anticipates the Baroque machinations of the later century, the Quirinal Chapel is a divided interior with subgroups of imagery that facilitate private contemplation of the Immaculate Conception.