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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Peter and Charles Borromeo and a Donor (Madonna della Ghiara) 1618 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Civica, Cento |
"The present work – stolen by the French in 1796 [and returned after the fall of Napoleon] – reproduces the venerated Madonna della Ghiara, drawn by Lelio Orsi [reproduced below as engraving]. The donor at lower right has not been identified, but it has been suggested . . . that he is a member of the Lori family or the cleric Ercole Dondini, to whom Pasqualini dedicated his print of St Peter receiving the Keys from Christ after Guercino [also below]. The picture originally hung above the altar of the first chapel on the right of S. Pietro, Cento."
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| Jan Sadeler the Elder after drawing by Lelio Orsi Madonna della Ghiara ca. 1596 engraving Accademia Carrara, Bergamo |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Sts Bernardino of Siena and Francis of Assisi praying before Our Lady of Loreto 1618 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Civica, Cento |
Sts Bernardino of Siena and Francis of Assisi praying before Our Lady of Loreto was also seized by the French in 1796 and removed to the Louvre. It too was returned to Cento after 1815, even though significant numbers of looted works remained in France and were never returned.
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Peter receiving the Keys from Christ ca. 1618 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Civica, Cento |
"[Carlo Cesare] Malvasia says the picture was made in 1618 after Guercino's return from Bologna and installed in Cento Cathedral (collegiate church of S. Biagio). By 1634 it was evidently in need of some restoration, which was carried out by Guercino himself – a repair for which he received 10 ducats on 10 September. This retouching is most evident in the head of Christ, which, as [Denis] Mahon noted, is inconsistent with the rest of the picture and more idealized. (His observations were supported by technical analysis and x-rays carried out in the 1960's by Joyce Plesters of the National Gallery.) [Girolamo] Baruffaldi noted that the painting was originally hung over the altar of the Guarini family chapel in the church, information confirmed by the fact that the payment for the retouching in 1634 was received from 'Sigr. Nicolo Guerini di Cento'. The picture was requisitioned by the French in 1796 [and, like those above, subsequently returned to the city, though not necessarily to the church]."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Peter receiving the Keys from Christ ca. 1618 drawing (compositional study) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Peter receiving the Keys from Christ ca. 1618 drawing (drapery study, St Peter) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Peter receiving the Keys from Christ ca. 1618 drawing (study of feet, St Peter) Musée du Louvre |
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino St Peter receiving the Keys from Christ 1624 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Vincenzo Vangelisti after Guercino St Peter receiving the Keys from Christ 1767 etching British Museum |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Albert, Francis, and a Franciscan (Madonna del Carmine) 1618 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Civica, Cento |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Albert, Francis, and a Franciscan (Madonna del Carmine) 1618 drawing (compositional study) Morgan Library, New York |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Albert, Francis, and a Franciscan (Madonna del Carmine) 1618 drawing (compositional study) Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Albert, Francis, and a Franciscan (Madonna del Carmine) 1618 drawing (compositional study) Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Francesco Bartolozzi after Guercino Virgin and Child with Sts Albert, Francis, and a Franciscan (Madonna del Carmine) 1764 etching after Guercino drawing British Museum |
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino Virgin and Child with Sts Albert, Francis, and a Franciscan (Madonna del Carmine) 1623 engraving British Museum |
"[The Madonna del Carmine altarpiece] was initially dated by Mahon to 1615, until payment records for it from 1618 emerged: one to the carpenter for the stretcher, dated 12 January 1618 (8 lire), and two to Guercino himself, on 21 May (108 lire) and 28 June (99 lire). The low sum paid for the painting might confirm the suspicion shared by Mahon, [Prisco] Bagni and [Luigi] Salerno that the two, stylistically inferior Franciscans at right are by the hand of an assistant, probably Lorenzo Gennari – a proposal further supported by their absence from Pasqualini's engraving of 1623 [directly above]. It is worth noting, however, that the Franciscans appear in Guercino's preparatory drawings, but there could have been a lost drawing without them that served as the model for Pasqualini (rather than the printmaker deliberately suppressing them on qualitative grounds)."
Рquoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonn̩ by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)