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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Teresa of Avila receiving a Golden Necklace 1660-61 oil on canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
"[St Teresa of Avila receiving a Golden Necklace] was painted for the nuns of the Discalced Carmelite Order for an altar in the church of S. Gabriele, Bologna, who paid, through Mons. Giovanni Cecchini, 800 lire (equal to 200 scudi) for it on 21 March 1661. In 1811, it was sent to the Brera, but from 1965 it was returned to Bologna and is on long-term loan to the new convent of the religious order."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Teresa of Avila receiving a Golden Necklace 1660-61 drawing (compositional study) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Teresa of Avila receiving a Golden Necklace 1660-61 drawing (compositional study) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Teresa of Avila receiving a Golden Necklace 1660-61 drawing (drapery and figure study - Joseph) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Teresa of Avila receiving a Golden Necklace 1660-61 drawing (drapery study - Virgin) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St John the Baptist taking Water from a Spring 1661 oil on canvas Musée Fabre, Montpellier |
"Though not recorded by [Carlo Cesare] Malvasia, [St John the Baptist taking Water from a Spring] is documented by its payment from Guercino's friend Padre Ettore Ghislieri . . . of 140 ducats (equal to 700 lire or 175 scudi) on 16 october 1661. As [Denis] Mahon pointed out, it is already mentioned among the pictures in the Oratorian church of S. Pietro in Valle, Fano, in the anonymous catalogue printed in 1759. It was taken by the French in 1797 and given to the Louvre. In 1801, it was sent to Strasbourg. . . . The reason it was not returned to Italy in 1816 was that it was among the paintings that Antonio Canova (1757-1822), in charge of the papal repatriation of works confiscated from Italian churches, allowed to be retained by the King of France. After struggling against the hostile and underhanded negotiating tactics of Baron Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825), who fought to save the ill-gotten gains for France and the Louvre (of which he had been appointed director by Napoleon), Canova eventually agreed to leave behind all the paintings that had been assigned to the provincial museums or to churches in Paris. It was later sent to Montpellier on 27 March 1896."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with the Blessed Bernardo Tolomeo receiving the Rule of his Order (lost painting) 1661 drawing (compositional study) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with the Blessed Bernardo Tolomeo receiving the Rule of his Order (lost painting) 1661 drawing (head study - Angel) Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
"Under the year 1662, Malvasia recorded [the Virgin and Child with the Blessed Bernardo Tolomeo receiving the Rule of his Order], but he may have muddled his notes, for the altarpiece was already paid for in 1661. . . . The altarpiece was in place in S. Michele in Bosco, Bologna, when seen by [Antonio di Paolo] Masini (1666) and documented in various 18th-century guidebooks. It was requisitioned by the French in 1796 and sent to Bordeaux, where it supposedly perished in a fire in 1870."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Annunciation 1662 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Domenico, Ancona |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Annunciation (installation view) 1662 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Domenico, Ancona |
"[The Annunciation] was commissioned, according to the account book, by Abbot Federico Troilo of Ancona, whose representative, Giovanni Antonio Manolesi, made a down payment of 16 doubloons (61 scudi, 3 lire) on 11 march 1662 and paid the balance of 50 doubloons or 150 ducats (equal to 167 scudi, 2 lire) on 26 June 1662. . . . The signature and date show that the 71-year-old artist, recently recovered from a bout of serious illness, was proudly and optimistically reaffirming his status as head of the studio, one still capable of carrying out a work of this degree of refinement and serenity without the aid of assistants."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Aurora 1662 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Aurora 1662 drawing (compositional study) private collection |
Рquoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonn̩ by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)