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| Guercino Erminia finding the wounded Tancred ca. 1650 oil on canvas National Galleries of Scotland |
"Now in what wretched hour does Fortune bring me here? to what sad and bitter spectacle? After so long a time, with much ado, I find you, Tancred, and I see you again, and am not seen. I am not seen by you though I am with you; and finding you I am losing you forever. Wretched me! I had not thought that you could ever be troublesome to my eyes. Now would I readily choose to blind myself to keep from seeing you, and dare not look. Ay me, where now is the brilliance of those eyes so lovely once, so cruel? where is the proud gleam hidden? the beautiful crimson of your blooming cheeks, where is it fled? where is the serenity of your brow? But to what purpose? Though pale and overcast, yet would you satisfy me. Lovely soul, if you be there within, if you hear my plaint, pardon my bold desires their theft and audacious daring. From the pale lips I mean to pluck even yet the cold kisses that I hoped to have with more heat. I shall take from death a part of his rights in you, kissing those bloodless lips and pale. O kindly mouth, that in life was wont to console my sorrow with your speech, allow me now that before my parting I comfort myself with one sweet kiss from you. And perhaps one time (if I had been bold to seek it) you would have given me that which now I am forced to steal. Allow me now to press you and then pour out between your lips my very soul. Receive my soul that follows, give it direction wherever yours has gone."
"Thus she speaks, sobbing, and is as it were dissolved through her eyes and seems turned into a river. With that refreshing dew he came to himself and somewhat parted his languid lips. He parted his lips and with eyes still closed he mingled one of his sighs with those of hers."
– Torquato Tasso, from Jerusalem Delivered (1581), an English prose version translated by Ralph Nash (Wayne State University Press, 1987)
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| Guercino David with the Head of Goliath 1650 oil on canvas National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo |
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| Guercino Assumption of the Virgin 1650 oil on canvas Detroit Institute of Arts |
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| Guercino Lot and his Daughters ca. 1650 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Dresden |
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| Guercino Virgin and Child with Four Saints (Patrons of Modena) ca. 1651 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Guercino Libyan Sibyl 1651 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Guercino Personification of Astrology ca. 1650-55 oil on canvas Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas |
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| Guercino St Luke displaying his portrait of the Virgin 1652-53 oil on canvas Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City |
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| Guercino Return of the Prodigal Son 1654-55 oil on canvas Timken Museum of Art, San Diego |
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| Guercino Disinterested Love ca. 1654 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Guercino Self-portrait 1655 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Guercino The Entombment 1656 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Guercino The Flagellation 1657 oil on canvas Palazzo Barberini, Rome |
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| Guercino Abraham rejects Hagar and Ishmael 1658 oil on canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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| Guercino Diana the Huntress 1658 oil on canvas Fondazione Sorgente Group, Rome |