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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Jacob blessing the Sons of Joseph 1620 oil on canvas National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin |
"[Carlo Cesare] Malvasia stated that [Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph] was executed at Ferrara in 1620 for Cardinal Jacopo Serra. It remained in the legate's apartments after his death in 1623, passing a few years later into the possession of the ambitious, but ill-fated Cardinal Giulio Sacchetti (1586-1663). . . . The subject shows Joseph bringing his sons Manasseh and Ephraim to be blessed by their blind and dying grandfather Jacob. The elder grandson, Manasseh, was placed to the left of his younger brother, Ephraim (shown with his head bowed) so that he [Manasseh] would receive his blessing from his grandfather's right hand (usually reserved for the firstborn), but Jacob crossed his hands over and resisted his son Joseph's attempts to rectify the mistake."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Jacob blessing the Sons of Joseph 1620 drawing (compositional study) Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Jacob blessing the Sons of Joseph 1620 drawing (compositional study) Musée du Louvre |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Jacob blessing the Sons of Joseph 1620 drawing (figure study) Pinacoteca Civica, Cento |
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| Oliviero Gatti after Guercino Studies of Hands from Guercino's Principles of Drawing (Jacob's outstretched right hand (in reverse) at far left) 1621 engraving, after Guercino drawing Harvard Art Museums |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) King David playing the Violin ca. 1620 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen |
"[Roberto] Longhi rightly compared the treatment of the bearded head of David [directly above] to that of the God the Father [directly below]. . . . [Stéphane] Loire suggested [that King David playing the Violin] may be a fragment cut down from a painting by Guercino ('a violin player with a female addressing him') shown at the famous exhibition Treasures of Art in Great Britain, held in Manchester in 1857, lent by Isaac Newton Wallop (1825-91), 5th Earl of Portsmouth."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) God the Father with Angel 1620 oil on canvas Palazzo Rosso. Genoa |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) God the Father with Angel 1620 drawing (head study) Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Francis in Ecstasy with an Angel and St Benedict 1620 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
There are four autograph versions of St Francis in Ecstasy with an Angel, but only the first includes the figure of St. Benedict. The altarpiece, painted for the Dondini Chapel of the Chiesa di San Pietro in Cento, was seized by the French in 1796 and has remained ever since at the Louvre.
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Francis in Ecstasy with an Angel ca. 1620 oil on canvas National Museum, Warsaw |
"[The Warsaw version of the painting] entered the museum's collection in 1946 following the confiscations of a substantial part of the property belonging to the Potocki family of Krakow. It is now known to have been acquired by Artur and Zofia Potocki of Krzeszowice during their second journey to Italy in 1829-30."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Francis in Ecstasy with an Angel ca. 1620 oil on canvas Grimaldi Fava Collection, Cento |
"The Grimaldi Fava version is now thought to be the one cited by [J.A.F.] Orbaan as having been in the Palazzo Massimo, Rome, at the death of Cardinal Camillo Massimo (1620-77). . . . Research in the archives unearthed an undated document recording the restoration carried out on a painting of this subject by Agostino Toffanelli (1770-1834) on behalf of Camillo VIII Massimiliano Massimo (1770-1840), 1st Prince of Arsoli."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Francis in Ecstasy with an Angel ca. 1620 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Dresden |
"[The Dresden version of the painting] is not recorded in early sources, but by 1683, according to a document cited by [Luigi] Salerno (brought to his attention by Angelo Mazza), it was in Bologna in the Casa Ranuzzi, having been purchased in July of that year by Conte Asdrubale Ranuzzi; it is cited in a Ranuzzi inventory of 1698. It was also seen there by [Charles-Nicolas] Cochin in 1749-51 and by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1752, and four years later it was purchased for Dresden. . . . This version is certainly the most fully resolved, with its finishing touches more clearly defined, including extra details, such as more extensive clouds and a castle in the distance."
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)