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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1624 oil on canvas Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
"According to [Carlo Cesare] Malvasia, Guercino painted this tondo in 1624 for Tiberio Lancellotti, who may, as [Denis] Mahon suggested, have chosen the unusual roundel format to match a Renaissance tondo that he already owned. The picture remained in the Palazzo Lancellotti until 1804, when it was acquired by the art dealer James Irvine (1757-1811)."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1624 drawing (figure study - sleeping Christ Child) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1624 drawing (drapery study - Virgin) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Francesco Bartolozzi after Guercino Rest on the Flight into Egypt ca. 1764-65 engraving after compositional study by Guercino British Museum |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Portrait of an Old Bearded Man ca. 1623-24 oil on canvas Galleria Estense, Modena |
"The sitter, whose identity is unknown, holds an open book and looks up at the viewer. The vigorous handling points to a date immediately after the painter's Roman stay. . . . It is a rare example of portraiture by Guercino from his transitional period."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with St Laurence 1624 oil on canvas Chiesa del Seminario di Finale nell' Emilia |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with St Laurence (detail of background with the Roman Colosseum) 1624 oil on canvas Chiesa del Seminario di Finale, Emilia |
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino Virgin and Child with St Laurence 1626 engraving British Museum |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with St Laurence 1624 drawing (head study) private collection |
"This altarpiece, painted for the seminary church at Finale nell' Emilia, was not mentioned by Malvasia, but is cited c. 1733 by [Girolamo] Baruffaldi, who dated it to 1624, immediately after Guercino's return from Rome. This date accords well with the painting's style. The powerful naturalism and strong colours, as well as the figures' weightiness, are qualities found in the St. Petronilla altarpiece, finished only a year or so earlier. What is new is the greater sense of intimacy, as befits the altarpiece's smaller scale and provincial destination. . . . A painting of the upper half of the kneeling figure of St Laurence [directly below] appeared on the art market in 2005, when, according to the previous owner, it was accepted as Guercino by Sir Denis Mahon, who did not commit himself as to whether it preceded or postdated the altarpiece."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Laurence with Hands clasped in Prayer 1624 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Laurence with Hands clasped in Prayer 1624 drawing (head study) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1624 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
"Guercino painted this rare subject on three different occasions. Denis Mahon reconstructed the complex provenance of this, the artist's earliest treatment of the subject. According to Malvasia, it was painted in 1624 for a certain 'Daniele Ricci' and later passed into the collection of the English monarch Charles I (reg. 1625-49). While Malvasia's 1624 date is correct, as, too, was his information about the picture being in the British Royal collection at the time of his writing of the Felsina pittrice, the 17th-century history of the picture is more complicated. [In fact it passed from a private collection in Amsterdam to the Dutch State, which presented it among other Italian paintings to Charles II at the time of his restoration to the English throne in 1660.] It is assumed that Charles II gave the Semiramis to his mistress Barbara Villiers (1641-1709), Duchess of Cleveland, or to their son, Henry FitzRoy (1663-90), 1st Duke of Grafton. . . . It descended in the collection of the Dukes of Grafton at Euston Hall, Suffolk, until acquired by the museum in 1948."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1624 drawing (compositional study) Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1624 drawing (head study) École des Beaux-Arts de Paris |
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| Jeremias Falck after Guercino Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon ca. 1650 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)