Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),[Miller, 1964] better known as ( il) Guercino
Biography
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri was born into a family of
in
Cento, a town in the
Po Valley mid-way between
Bologna and
Ferrara.
[Mahon, 1937a] Being
Strabismus, at an early age he acquired the nickname by which he is universally known, Guercino (a
diminutive of the Italian noun guercio]], 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.
[Griswold 1991, p. 6] An early commission was for the decoration with frescoes (1615–1616
) of Casa Pannini in Cento, where the naturalism of his landscapes already reveals considerable artistic independence, as do his landscapes on canvas
Moonlit Landscape and
Country Concert from the same era.
[Stone, pp. 3, 37.] 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),
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 Memento mori even in the most idyllic setting.[Griswold 1991, p. 13] He painted two large canvases, Samson Seized by Philistines (1619) and Elijah Fed by Ravens (1620), for Cardinal Giacomo Serra, a Papal Legate to Ferrara.[Vivian, 1971] Painted at a time when it is unlikely that Guercino could have seen Caravaggio'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 in 1621.
[Lawrence Gowing, ed., Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists, v.2 (Facts on File, 2005): 291.] 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).
Return to Bologna
Following the death of Gregory XV in 1623, Guercino returned to his hometown of Cento. In 1626, he began his
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 lifes, kept updated, and which has been preserved.
[Griswold 1991, p. 35] 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, 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 of Reggio paid him 300
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 works, 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".
[Griswold 1991, p. 36]
Despite presumably having monocular vision due to a 'lazy' right eye, Guercino showed remarkable facility to Depth perception 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, Dürer, Degas, Picasso and (possibly) Leonardo da Vinci.
His lively treatment of the Aurora myth (1621, Villa Aurora, Rome, Italy), painted for the pope's nephew, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi.[Vodret and Gozzi, 2011, pp. 159–161] 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.[Unger, 2016, p. 9; ] 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,
[Orlandi, 1719, p. 207] Giuseppe Bonati of Ferrara,
[Orlandi, p. 207] Cristoforo Serra of Cesena,
[Orlandi, p. 120.] Father
Cesare Pronti of Ferrara,
[Orlandi, p. 350.] Sebastiano Ghezzi,
[Orlandi, p. 399] Sebastiano Bombelli,
[Orlandi, p. 397.] Lorenzo Bergonzoni of Bologna,
[Orlandi, p. 294.] Francesco Paglia of Brescia.,
[Orlandi, p. 171] Benedetto Zallone of Cento, Bartolomeo Caravoglia,
[Lanzi, 1847, pp. 309–310] 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, Stockholm, Sweden).[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
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
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
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, 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.
[Mahon, 1992, p. 7] Both these exhibitions were curated by Guercino's biggest modern champion,
Denis Mahon, who was responsible for their catalogues.
[van Serooskerken, 1991] In 2011–2012, a large exhibition was displayed at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, dedicated to the memory of Mahon, who had recently died.
[Vodret and Gozzi, 2011] An exhibition displayed at the National Museum, Warsaw in 2013–2014 offered another extensive presentation of the artist's work.
In 2019-2010 the Morgan Library & Museum held of an exhibit of his drawings titled,
Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman. A catalog was published in conjunction with the exhibit.
Citations
- Books and articles on Guercino
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Marciari, John (2019). Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman. New York, NY : The Morgan Library & Museum.
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Further reading
External links
