Guercino | |
|---|---|
 Self portrait,c. 1635 | |
| Born | Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-02-08)February 8, 1591 |
| Died | December 22, 1666(1666-12-22) (aged 75) |
| Known for | Painting,drawing |
| Movement | Baroque |
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),[1] better known as (il)Guercino[2] (Italian pronunciation:[ɡwerˈtʃiːno]ⓘ), was anItalian Baroque painter and draftsman fromCento in theEmilia region, who was active inRome andBologna. 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.
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Giovanni Francesco Barbieri was born into a family ofpeasant farmers inCento, a town in thePo Valley mid-way betweenBologna andFerrara.[4] Beingcross-eyed, at an early age he acquired the nickname by which he is universally known, Guercino (adiminutive of the Italian nounguercio, meaning 'squinter').[5] Mainly self-taught, at the age of 16, he worked as apprentice in the shop ofBenedetto Gennari, a painter of theBolognese School.[6] An early commission was for the decoration with frescoes (1615–1616[7]) of Casa Pannini in Cento, where thenaturalism of hislandscapes already reveals considerable artistic independence, as do his landscapes on canvasMoonlit Landscape andCountry Concert from the same era.[8] In Bologna, he won the praise ofLudovico 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".[9]
St William Receiving the Monastic Habit (1620,Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy),[10] painted forSanti Gregorio e Siro in Bologna, was Guercino's largest ecclesiastical commission at the time and is considered a high point of his early career.[5]
His paintingEt in Arcadia ego from around 1618–1622 contains the first known usage anywhere of the Latin motto,later taken up byPoussin and others, signifying thatdeath lurks even in the mostidyllic setting.[11] The dramatic composition of this canvas (related to hisFlaying ofMarsyas by Apollo (1617–1618[12]) created forCosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, which shares the same pair of shepherds[13]) is typical of Guercino's early works, which are often tumultuous in conception.[14] He painted two large canvases,Samson Seized by Philistines (1619) andElijah Fed by Ravens (1620), for CardinalGiacomo Serra, a Papal Legate toFerrara.[15][16] Painted at a time when it is unlikely that Guercino could have seenCaravaggio's work in Rome, these works nevertheless display a starkly naturalistic Caravaggesque style.
Guercino was recommended by MarcheseEnzo Bentivoglio to the newly elected BologneseLudovisi Pope,Pope Gregory XV in 1621.[17] The years he spent in Rome, 1621–23, were very productive. From this period are his frescoesAurora at the casino of theVilla Ludovisi, the ceiling inSan Crisogono (1622) ofSan Chrysogonus in Glory, the portrait of Pope Gregory XV (now in theGetty Museum), and theSt. Petronilla Altarpiece forSt. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (now in theCapitoline Museums).
Following the death of Gregory XV in 1623, Guercino returned to his hometown of Cento. In 1626, he began hisfrescoes inPiacenza Cathedral. The details of his career after 1629 are well documented in the account book, theLibro dei Conti di Casa Barbieri, that Guercino and his brotherPaolo Antonio Barbieri, a notable painter ofstill lifes, kept updated, and which has been preserved.[18] Between 1618 and 1631,Giovanni Battista Pasqualini produced 67 engravings that document the early production of Guercino, which is not included in theLibro dei Conti.[19] In 1642, following the death of his commercial rivalGuido Reni, 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, theFranciscan Order of Reggio[clarification needed] paid him 300ducats for the altarpiece ofSaint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Madonna and Child (now inNelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City).[20] TheCorsini family also paid him 300 ducats for theFlagellation of Christ painted in 1657.
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".[21]
Despite presumably havingmonocular vision due to a'lazy' right eye, Guercino showed remarkable facility toimply depth in his works, perhaps assisted by an enhancedperception of light and shade thanks to compensation by the healthy eye.[22] Other artists with different types of strabismus includeRembrandt,Dürer,Degas,Picasso and (possibly)Leonardo da Vinci.[23]
His lively treatment of theAurora myth (1621,Villa Aurora, Rome, Italy), painted for the pope's nephew, CardinalLudovico Ludovisi.[24] challenges the more measured representation of the same subjectpainted by Guido Reni atPalazzo Rospigliosi on behalf of a Ludovisi family rivalScipione Borghese and makes a statement of political triumph.[25] 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.
Guercino continued to paint and teach until the end of his life, amassing a notable fortune. He died on December 22, 1666, in Bologna.[26] As he never married, his estate passed to his nephews and pupils,Benedetto Gennari II andCesare Gennari.[5] Other pupils includeGiulio Coralli,[27]Giuseppe Bonati of Ferrara,[28]Cristoforo Serra of Cesena,[29] FatherCesare Pronti of Ferrara,[30]Sebastiano Ghezzi,[31]Sebastiano Bombelli,[32]Lorenzo Bergonzoni of Bologna,[33]Francesco Paglia of Brescia.,[34]Benedetto Zallone of Cento,Bartolomeo Caravoglia,[35]Giuseppe Maria Galeppini of Forli, andMatteo Loves.
![Moonlit Landscape (c. 1616, oil on canvas, 55 × 71 cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden).[36] An early, naturalistic landscape.](/image.pl?url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2f%2fupload.wikimedia.org%2fwikipedia%2fcommons%2fthumb%2fc%2fc9%2fMoonlight_Landscape_%2528Giovanni_Francesco_Barbieri_Guercino%2529_-_Nationalmuseum_-_20163.tif%2flossy-page1-427px-Moonlight_Landscape_%2528Giovanni_Francesco_Barbieri_Guercino%2529_-_Nationalmuseum_-_20163.tif.jpg&f=jpg&w=240)
![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[4]) for Casa Pannini in Cento.[37]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGuercino_La_mietitura.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.[38] 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.[39]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSusana_y_los_viejos_(Guercino).jpg)
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A groundbreaking exhibition held at theArchiginnasio 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.[39] For the fourth centenary of the artist's birth in 1991, an expanded exhibition was organized by thePinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna in conjunction with theSchirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and theNational Gallery of Art, Washington.[40] Both these exhibitions were curated by Guercino's biggest modern champion,Denis Mahon, who was responsible for their catalogues.[41] In 2011–2012, a large exhibition was displayed atPalazzo Barberini in Rome, dedicated to the memory of Mahon, who had recently died.[42] An exhibition displayed at theNational Museum, Warsaw in 2013–2014 offered another extensive presentation of the artist's work.[43] In 2019-2010 theMorgan Library & Museum held of an exhibit of his drawings titled,Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman.[44] A catalog was published in conjunction with the exhibit.
| External videos | |
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 Guercino'sSaint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin,Smarthistory |
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