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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Moses receiving the Tables of the Law (detail) ca. 1624 oil on canvas Palazzo Colonna, Rome |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Crucifixion with the Virgin, the Magdalene, St John the Evangelist and St Prospero 1624-25 oil on canvas Basilica della Beata Vergine della Ghiara, Reggio Emilia |
"This was Guercino's largest, most ambitious altarpiece after the St Petronilla painted for St Peter's in 1623. . . . In April 1624 Guercino was approached. He had only recently returned to Cento from his stay in Rome, where he had carried out some acclaimed papal commissions, but some deputies nonetheless felt that his work needed to be vetted. A party of seven was sent to the church of S. Bernardino at Carpi, where they examined Guercino's altarpiece of the Martyrdom of St Peter of c. 1618-19. Surviving documents also touch on Guercino's trip to Reggio Emilia later in 1624, after having been awarded the commission, to study where the altarpiece would be placed, and his detour to Bologna to buy canvas of the right size and quality, as well as other materials. . . . The finished canvas's final journey to Reggio Emilia, by ox cart, accompanied by Guercino's 'two young men' (probably Bartolomeo and Ercole Gennari) is also recorded, as are the festivities that took place on its arrival."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Crucifixion 1624-25 oil on canvas Basilica della Beata Vergine della Ghiara, Reggio Emilia |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Crucifixion after 1624-25 anonymous copy of lost Guercino drawing (compositional study) Morgan Library, New York |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Crucifixion 1624-25 drawing (figure study - Christ) Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Crucifixion 1624-25 drawing (compositional study) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Crucifixion 1624-25 drawing (drapery study - St Prospero) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Francesco Bartolozzi after Guercino The Crucifixion 1764 engraving after Guercino drawing (compositional study) Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Penitent St Peter ca. 1624-25 oil on canvas private collection |
"The [Penitent St Peter] typifies Guercino's post-Roman style, in which more and more light and colour follow the forms they describe, rather than being blurred by ambient haze. The Apostle fits neatly within the half-length canvas, his backward leaning head and body emphasizing the diagonal axis. This diagonal drift is contradicted by the keys dangling from the saint's left wrist, which make a plumb-line, a clean vertical taken up by the parapet on the opposite side of the picture, on which St Peter leans his elbow."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Jacob lamenting over Joseph's Bloody Coat ca. 1624-25 oil on canvas private collection |
"Guercino's half-length rendering of [Jacob lamenting over Joseph's Bloody Coat] is known from at least four versions, all upright and roughly the same size. Despite variations in degree of finish and in the treatment of critical details, such as the patriarch's hair and beard and the bloody coat, they are all, in my opinion, autograph."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Portrait of Cardinal Francesco Cennini 1625 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
"[Carlo Cesare] Malvasia recorded that Guercino painted this portrait in 1625, soon after the sitter's appointment in 1623 as Legate of Ferrara, in succession to Cardinal Jacopo Serra, who died of malaria that year after attending the papal conclave that elected Urban VIII."
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| Giovanni Battista Pasqualini after Guercino Temptation of St Jerome 1625 engraving (after a painting on copper) Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Achenbach Foundation) |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Portrait of a Man dressed as Mars ca. 1625 drawing (figure study for a painting on canvas) Fondation Custodia, Paris |
The print and drawing directly above both correspond to existing paintings in private collections, but publicly available images of the original works have not been located.
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Portrait of the Aldrovandi Dog ca. 1625 oil on canvas Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena |
"Though not recorded in any of the early biographical sources, [the Aldrovandi Dog] was likely made c. 1625 for [Guercino's] friend Conte Filippo Aldrovandi, a member of an illustrious family of Bolognese aristocrats whose coat of arms appears on the animals' collar. The picture may have been made as a gift rather than a paid commission."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Portrait of a Cano Corso Dog (Italian Mastiff) ca. 1625 oil on canvas private collection |
This second dog portrait of c. 1625 does not appear in the 2017 Catalogue Raisonné, but was authenticated by the author when it appeared on the art market in 2018.
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)