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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Sibyl ca. 1620 oil on canvas Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Cento |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Sibyl ca. 1620 drawing (compositional study) private collection |
"[The Sibyl of 1620] was discovered by Pietro Boccardo in 1992, and he traced its provenance from the previous Genoese owners back to Cardinal Serra, who was from a Genoese family and was one of Guercino's most important patrons while he was Papal Legate in Ferrara (1615-23). . . . The figure of Cleopatra in the Suicide of Cleopatra [directly below] . . . seems to be based on the same model wearing a similar costume."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Suicide of Cleopatra ca. 1620 oil on canvas Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Salome visiting John the Baptist in Prison ca. 1620 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Damiano Pernati after Guercino Salome visiting John the Baptist in Prison 1804 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"Guercino's figures are characterized by the readability of their facial expressions and gestures, reflecting emotions from joy, happiness, ecstasy and desire to sadness, disgust, fear and horror. Only rarely is there ambiguity. This clarity enabled his audience to interpret the action of the figures correctly. But to critics of the late 18th century and later (viewing Guercino's work from a different cultural perspective), the facial expressions often seemed exaggerated, even cloying."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Christian Charity ca. 1620-21 oil on copper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino Christian Charity 1622 engraving British Museum |
"What is surely the present picture [Christian Charity] is cited in the 1693 inventory of Giovanni Battista Borghese (1639-1701) . . . traditionally said to have belonged to Prince Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), presumably acquired through his sister Pauline Bonaparte (1780-1825), who married Camillo Borghese (1775-1832), 6th Prince of Sulmona. The Bonaparte pictures were dispersed in 1815 in London, where the present work next turned up in the 1911 auction of Charles Butler (1821-1910) of Hatfield. In 1941 it was bequeathed to the [Rijksmuseum] by J.W.E. vom Rath (1863-1940), Amsterdam."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Betrayal of Christ 1621 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino Betrayal of Christ 1621 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"[The Incredulity of St Thomas, below] was executed by Guercino as a pendant to [the Betrayal of Christ, above] before his departure in May for Rome. Pasqualini's engravings after them are dated 1621, and the Betrayal of Christ is dedicated to Cavaliere Bartolomeo Fabri – the patron for whom [Carlo Cesare] Malvasia says the pair was painted."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Incredulity of St Thomas 1621 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Incredulity of St Thomas (detail) 1621 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome |
Turner states that the Vatican Incredulity was the "trial version" for the "finished version" at the National Gallery, London. The Vatican version was nevertheless preferred for reproduction here, because the digital image released by the National Gallery is (as is commonly the sad case with images released by the National Gallery) illegibly muddy.
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino Incredulity of St Thomas 1621 engraving British Museum |
"Contrary to the print after the Betrayal of Christ, Pasqualini's engraving of [the Incredulity of St Thomas, directly above] is not in reverse: this was probably to avoid the print showing St Thomas touching Christ's wound with his left hand."
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino Youthful Christ seated between St John the Baptist and the Virgin 1621 engraving (after a lost painting) Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery ca. 1621 oil on canvas Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Christ Crowned with Thorns ca. 1621 oil on copper Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
"The muted colours [of Christ Crowned with Thorns] – plum reds, light ochres, pinks and greys – suggest Guercino's work before his visit to Rome. The head is remarkably close in appearance, except in reverse, to that of the Christ in the Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child ca. 1621 oil on canvas Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt |
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)