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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Agony in the Garden ca. 1613-14 oil on canvas UniCredit, Bologna |
"In this picture – in the collection of Arturo Bovi, Rome, when first exhibited in 1968 – Guercino shows a more Venetian air, inspired by the works of Scarsellino. . . . [It also] shows knowledge of Ludovico Carracci's composition of the same subject [below]."
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| Ludovico Carracci The Agony in the Garden ca. 1590 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Jupiter with Thunderbolts 1614 grisaille fresco Casa Provenzale-Benazzi, Cento |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Jupiter with Thunderbolts and Hercules killing the Hydra 1614 grisaille frescoes Casa Provenzale-Benazzi, Cento |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Hercules killing the Hydra 1614 drawing (compositional study) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Hercules killing the Hydra 1614 drawing (compositional study) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
"In 1614, Alberto Provenzale, brother of the mosaicist Marcello Provenzale, commissioned Guercino to decorate a large upstairs room of his house in Cento. . . . Alberto must have devised the subjects himself: the narrative cycle illustrates the life of Provencus, a fictitious Roman warrior from whom he claimed descent. . . . The original decoration consisted of three narrative scenes on each of the room's four walls, each separated by a fictive sculpture, painted in grisaille, the figure perched atop an illusionistically rendered console [examples and preparatory drawings above]. A fresco of Bellerophon Mounted on Pegasus, Slaying the Chimera [copy by anonymous follower below] was painted on the chimneybreast at the centre of the northwest wall, but both it and the chimney have been destroyed."
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| follower of Guercino Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus slaying the Chimera 17th century drawing private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Charles Borromeo in Prayer 1614 oil on canvas Collegiate Church of San Biagio, Cento |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Charles Borromeo in Prayer (detail) 1614 oil on canvas Collegiate Church of San Biagio, Cento |
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| Giovanni Battista Coriolano after Guercino St Charles Borromeo in Prayer 1619 woodcut British Museum |
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino St Charles Borromeo in Prayer ca. 1620-23 engraving British Museum |
"The altarpiece was painted for S. Maria Addolorata dei Servi, Cento, but is now on deposit in the collegiate church of S. Biagio. Its composition was soon circulated in reproductive prints, all of which show three putti's heads rather than one at the upper corner." [Saint Charles Borromeo represented a particularly "topical subject" due to the recentness of his canonization in 1610.]
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Miracle of St Charles Borromeo ca. 1614 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Sebastiano di Renazzo |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Miracle of St Charles Borromeo ca. 1614 drawing (figure study) Musée du Louvre |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Miracle of St Charles Borromeo (detail) ca. 1614 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Sebastiano di Renazzo |
"Painted for the church of S. Sebastiano, Renazzo di Cento, which was renovated in the 18th century, this picture reflects the taste for chiaroscuro effects of artificial light that engaged painters of the early 17th century. It had a 16th-century precedent in the altarpiece of the Birth of the Virgin of c. 1590 [below] by Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614), now in the church of the SS. Trinità, Bologna. During his youth Guercino could easily have seen this painting, then located in the collegiate church of S. Biagio. In the Renazzo painting, the motifs of the little girl trying to attract the attention of the woman by the fireplace by tugging at her dress, and the cat between them, must have originated from the numerous genre drawings of Guercino, who, like Annibale Carracci, often used scenes of everyday life as models."
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| Lavinia Fontana Birth of the Virgin ca. 1590 oil on canvas Chiesa della Santissima Trinità, Bologna |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Mystic Marriage of St Catherine attended by St Charles Borromeo (detail) ca. 1614-15 oil on canvas Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Cento |
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino Mystic Marriage of St Catherine 1626 engraving Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Achenbach Foundation) |
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)