Guercino
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Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from
Cento Cento (; Bolognese dialect, Northern Bolognese: ; Bolognese dialect, City Bolognese: ; Bolognese dialect, Centese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. History The name Cento is a reference to the centur ...
in the Emilia region, who was active in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
and
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
. The vigorous naturalism of his early manner contrasts with the classical equilibrium of his later works. His many drawings are noted for their luminosity and lively style.


Biography

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri was born into a family of peasant farmers in
Cento Cento (; Bolognese dialect, Northern Bolognese: ; Bolognese dialect, City Bolognese: ; Bolognese dialect, Centese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. History The name Cento is a reference to the centur ...
, a town in the
Po Valley The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain (, , or ) is a major geographical feature of northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetian Plain, Venetic extension not actu ...
mid-way between
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
and
Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...
.Mahon, 1937a Being cross-eyed, at an early age he acquired the nickname by which he is universally known, Guercino (a
diminutive A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
of the Italian noun , meaning 'squinter').Turner, 2003 Mainly self-taught, at the age of 16, he worked as apprentice in the shop of Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the Bolognese School. An early commission was for the decoration with frescoes (1615–1616) of Casa Pannini in Cento, where the naturalism of his
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
s already reveals considerable artistic independence, as do his landscapes on canvas '' Moonlit Landscape'' and '' Country Concert'' from the same era. In Bologna, he won the praise of Ludovico Carracci. He always acknowledged that his early style had been influenced by study of a Madonna painted by Ludovico Carracci for the Capuchin church in Cento, affectionately known as "La Carraccina". '' St William Receiving the Monastic Habit'' (1620, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy), painted for Santi Gregorio e Siro in Bologna, was Guercino's largest ecclesiastical commission at the time and is considered a high point of his early career. His painting '' Et in Arcadia ego'' from around 1618–1622 contains the first known usage anywhere of the Latin motto, later taken up by Poussin and others, signifying that death lurks even in the most idyllic setting. The dramatic composition of this canvas (related to his ''Flaying of
Marsyas In Greek mythology, the satyr Marsyas (; ) is a central figure in two stories involving music: in one, he picked up the double oboe (''aulos'') that had been abandoned by Athena and played it; in the other, he challenged Apollo to a contest of ...
by Apollo'' (1617–1618) created for Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, which shares the same pair of shepherds) is typical of Guercino's early works, which are often tumultuous in conception. He painted two large canvases, '' Samson Seized by Philistines'' (1619) and ''
Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...
Fed by Ravens'' (1620), for Cardinal Giacomo Serra, a Papal Legate to
Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...
.Vivian, 1971 Painted at a time when it is unlikely that Guercino could have seen
Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...
's work in Rome, these works nevertheless display a starkly naturalistic Caravaggesque style.


Rome

Guercino was recommended by Marchese Enzo Bentivoglio to the newly elected Bolognese Ludovisi Pope,
Pope Gregory XV Pope Gregory XV (; ; 9 January 1554 – 8 July 1623), born Alessandro Ludovisi, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 February 1621 until his death in 1623. He is notable for founding the Congregation for the ...
in 1621. The years he spent in Rome, 1621–23, were very productive. From this period are his frescoes ''Aurora'' at the casino of the Villa Ludovisi, the ceiling in San Crisogono (1622) of ''San Chrysogonus in Glory'', the portrait of Pope Gregory XV (now in the Getty Museum), and the '' St. Petronilla Altarpiece'' for St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (now in the
Capitoline Museums The Capitoline Museums () are a group of art and archaeology, archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, facing ...
).


Return to Bologna

Following the death of Gregory XV in 1623, Guercino returned to his hometown of Cento. In 1626, he began his
fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
es in Piacenza Cathedral. The details of his career after 1629 are well documented in the account book, the ''Libro dei Conti di Casa Barbieri'', that Guercino and his brother Paolo Antonio Barbieri, a notable painter of
still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...
s, kept updated, and which has been preserved. Between 1618 and 1631, Giovanni Battista Pasqualini produced 67 engravings that document the early production of Guercino, which is not included in the ''Libro dei Conti''. In 1642, following the death of his commercial rival
Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian Baroque painter, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but al ...
, Guercino moved his busy workshop to Bologna, where he was now able to take over Reni's role as the city's leading painter of sacred subjects. In 1655, the
Franciscan Order The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...
of Reggio paid him 300
ducat The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...
s for the altarpiece of ''Saint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Madonna and Child'' (now in Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City). The Corsini family also paid him 300 ducats for the ''Flagellation of Christ'' painted in 1657.


Style

Guercino was remarkable for the extreme rapidity of his executions: he completed no fewer than 106 large altarpieces for churches, and his other paintings amount to about 144. He was also a prolific draftsman. His production includes many drawings, usually in ink, washed ink, or red chalk. Most of them were made as preparatory studies for his paintings, but he also drew landscapes, genre subjects, and caricatures for his own enjoyment. Guercino's drawings are known for their fluent style in which "rapid, calligraphic pen strokes combined with dots, dashes, and parallel hatching lines describe the forms". Despite presumably having monocular vision due to a 'lazy' right eye, Guercino showed remarkable facility to imply depth in his works, perhaps assisted by an enhanced perception of light and shade thanks to compensation by the healthy eye.Scholtz et al, 2019 Other artists with different types of strabismus include
Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...
, Dürer,
Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...
, Picasso and (possibly)
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
. His lively treatment of the Aurora myth (1621, Villa Aurora, Rome, Italy), painted for the pope's nephew, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. challenges the more measured representation of the same subject painted by Guido Reni at Palazzo Rospigliosi on behalf of a Ludovisi family rival Scipione Borghese and makes a statement of political triumph. Some of his later works are closer to the style of Reni, and are painted with much greater luminosity and clarity than his early works with their prominent use of chiaroscuro.


Pupils

Guercino continued to paint and teach until the end of his life, amassing a notable fortune. He died on December 22, 1666, in Bologna. As he never married, his estate passed to his nephews and pupils, Benedetto Gennari II and Cesare Gennari. Other pupils include Giulio Coralli, Giuseppe Bonati of Ferrara, Cristoforo Serra of Cesena, Father
Cesare Pronti Cesare Pronti (November 30, 1626 – October 22, 1708) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly near Ravenna. Biography He was born at Cattolica, near Rimini, and was brought up at Bologna, training in that city under ...
of Ferrara, Sebastiano Ghezzi, Sebastiano Bombelli, Lorenzo Bergonzoni of Bologna, Francesco Paglia of Brescia., Benedetto Zallone of Cento, Bartolomeo Caravoglia, Giuseppe Maria Galeppini of Forli, and Matteo Loves.


Works

File:Moonlight Landscape (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri Guercino) - Nationalmuseum - 20163.tif, ''Moonlit Landscape'' (c. 1616, oil on canvas, 55 × 71 cm,
Nationalmuseum Nationalmuseum is the List of national galleries, national gallery of fine arts of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museum's operations stretch far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, including the Natio ...
, Stockholm, Sweden). An early, naturalistic landscape. File:Guercino La mietitura.jpg, ''Harvesting'' (1615–1617, fresco, transferred to canvas, 18 × 23.5 cm, Pinacoteca, Cento, Italy). One of the frescoes created (with the assistance of Lorenzo Gennari) for Casa Pannini in Cento. File:Susana y los viejos (Guercino).jpg, ''Susanna and the Elders'' (1617, oil on canvas, 176 × 208 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain) was painted in Bologna for Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, the future
Pope Gregory XV Pope Gregory XV (; ; 9 January 1554 – 8 July 1623), born Alessandro Ludovisi, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 February 1621 until his death in 1623. He is notable for founding the Congregation for the ...
. The dramatic dynamism of this early work contrasts with the studied classicism of the artist's later depiction of the same story in 1649–1650.Posner, 1968 File:Samson Captured by the Philistines MET DT503.jpg, ''Samson Seized by the Philistines'', 1619 This work depicts the biblical scene where Samson is betrayed by his lover Delilah. Samson is at the center, though his face cannot be seen, and surrounding him are the Philistines who have come to blind him after cutting off his hair, his source of strength.
File:Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, gen. Il Guercino - Gleichnis vom verlorenen Sohn - GG 253 - Kunsthistorisches Museum.jpg, ''Return of the Prodigal Son'', 1619 File:Guercino Guglielmo d'Aquitania.jpg, '' St William Receiving the Monastic Habit'', 1620 File:Guercino - Aurora - WGA10920.jpg, ''Aurora'', 1621 (ceiling fresco, tempera), Villa Aurora, Rome, Italy File:Guercino Catura di Cristo.jpg, ''Capturing Christ'', 1621 File:Guercino - Saint Matthew and the Angel - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Saint Matthew and the Angel'', 1622 File:Guercino - Assumption of Mary - Hermitage.jpg, '' Assumption'', c. 1623,
Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...
File:Guercino Morte di Didone.jpg, ''La morte di Didone'', 1631 File:Guercino Christ et la samaritaine.jpg, ''Christ and the Woman of Samaria'' II, c. 1640–1641 File:Guercino - ST. SEBASTIAN. 1642.jpg, ''St. Sebastian'', 1642,
Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (, abbreviated as , ''GMII'') is the largest museum of European art in Moscow. It is located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The International musical festival Sviatos ...
File:Atlas holding up the celestial globe - Guercino (1646).jpg, ''Atlas holding up the celestial globe'', 1646 File:Guercino - St Peter Weeping before the Virgin - WGA10949.jpg, ''St Peter Weeping before the Virgin'', 1647 File:Guercino - Mars with Cupid - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Mars with Cupid'', 1649 File:Guercino - Cleopatra and Octavian - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Cleopatra and Octavian'', 1649 File:Joseph and Potiphar's Wife - Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino, 1649 - NG Wash DC.jpg, ''Joseph and Potiphar's Wife'', 1649, National Gallery of Art File:Guercino - St. Cecilia - Google Art Project.jpg, ''St. Cecilia'', 1649 File:Guercino Susanna and The Elders Parma.jpg, ''Susanna and the Elders'', 1650 File:Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) - David with the Head of Goliath - Google Art Project.jpg, ''David with the Head of Goliath'', circa 1650 File:The Vocation of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga.PNG, ''The Vocation of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga'', 1650 File:Guercino Astrologia.jpg, ''Personification of Astrology'', ca. 1650–1655, Blanton Museum of Art,
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
File:Guercino Return of the prodigal son.jpg, ''The Return of the Prodigal Son'', 1651 File:'King David', painting by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (il Guercino) c. 1768.jpg, ''King David'', 1651 File:Guercino - Martyrdom of St Catherine - WGA10940.jpg, '' The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine'', 1653, Hermitage Museum File:Samson and Delilah mg 0034.jpg, '' Samson and Delilah'', 1654 File:Guercino, san girolamo penitente.JPG, ''
Saint Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known for his translation of the Bible ...
'', c.1640–1650


Exhibitions

A groundbreaking exhibition held at the Archiginnasio of Bologna in 1968 provided the most complete panorama of Guercino's work to date, including paintings from the later parts of his career after the death of Pope Gregory XV, which had previously attracted relatively little attention. For the fourth centenary of the artist's birth in 1991, an expanded exhibition was organized by the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna in conjunction with the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Both these exhibitions were curated by Guercino's biggest modern champion, Denis Mahon, who was responsible for their catalogues. In 2011–2012, a large exhibition was displayed at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, dedicated to the memory of Mahon, who had recently died. An exhibition displayed at the
National Museum, Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw (, MNW) is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art (Art of ancient Egypt, Egyptian, Art in ancient Greece, Greek, ...
in 2013–2014 offered another extensive presentation of the artist's work.


Citations


References

;Books and articles on Guercino * * * * * * * . * * * * * * * *


Further reading

*


External links

*
Paintings by Guercino
on the Web Gallery of Art
Getty exhibition of Guercino drawings

''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Il Guercino

Pinacoteca Civica Il Guercino


*
Jusepe de Ribera, 1591–1652
', an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Guercino (see index)
''Velázquez ''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Guercino (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Guercino Painters from Bologna Italian Baroque painters 1591 births 1666 deaths Italian male painters Italian Roman Catholics People from Cento 17th-century Italian painters Catholic painters