Friday, May 21, 2021

Guercino in Bologna - 1644 (II)

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
Flagellation of Christ
1644
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

"In 1644 the Berengani, a recently ennobled family of merchants active throughout the Veneto, commissioned Guercino to paint an altarpiece of The Flagellation, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, for the church of S. Biagio, Vicenza.  Living at some distance from Bologna, where Guercino was then resident, the patrons must have insisted on seeing a modello before finalizing the contract.  This may account for the beautifully executed, finished drawing [directly below] in the Art Institute of Chicago, wrongly considered a school drawing.  As was the painter's wont, he eventually changed almost every single detail from this first idea.  He reversed some figures, altered the position of others and, quite rightly, abandoned the massive dark pier at left.  Yet despite all these adjustments, he somehow preserved the drawing's overall conception." 

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
Flagellation of Christ
1644
drawing (compositional study)
Art Institute of Chicago

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
Flagellation of Christ
1644
drawing (compositional study)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
St Margaret
1644
oil on canvas
Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
St Margaret
(installation view)
1644
oil on canvas
Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome

Richard Cooper the Younger after Guercino
St Margaret
ca. 1770
copy drawing
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

"The picture [St Margaret] appears over the altar in the right transept of S. Pietro in Vincoli, close to the sacristy door.  The padre generale of S. Salvatore, Bologna, a church that had particular resonance for Guercino, commissioned it in 1644.  Padre Mirandola, the painter's backer and long-time friend, had given long service to S. Salvatore, and it was there that Guercino was ultimately to be buried.  S. Pietro in Vincoli, like S. Salvatore, Bologna, was a church of the Augustinian canons regular of S. Salvatore, otherwise known as the Canonici Renani (from the church of their origin on the banks of the River Reno, which flows near to Cento).  The padre generale of S. Salvatore, Bologna, as the head of the order, decided for some reason to make a gesture to one of its subsidiary churches."  

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
Charity
1644
oil on canvas
private collection

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
Charity
1644
drawing (compositional study)
Burrell Collection, Glasgow

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
Charity
1644
drawing (compositional study)
Musée du Louvre

"[Guercino's] move to Bologna in 1642 had brought further stylistic changes: the classical tendency that had long been apparent in his work became more marked, and his colours broadened in range, as well as lightened in hue."

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
Ecce Homo
1644
oil on canvas
Palazzo Corsini, Rome

Pietro Fontana after Guercino
Ecce Homo
ca. 1780
engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art

"[The Ecce Homo] is from the Corsini collection, Rome, and is among the most famous of Guercino's devotional pictures.  Numerous copies of varying quality were made from it until the 19th century.  . . . It was listed in the Corsini inventory of 1750, with a note saying it was purchased from the heirs of Cardinal Cibo, a reference to Cardinal Alderano Cibo (1613-1700), Papal Legate of Ferrara from 1651 to 1654, when he was well acquainted with Guercino." 

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
St John the Baptist
1644
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

"Malvasia noted that this upright oval was commissioned in 1644 by Conte Ettore Ghislieri (1605-76), who was then in the process of building a collection of pictures in his palace, Bologna.  . . .  The count was a passionate amateur and in 1646 established an academy of painting in his palace, where Guercino taught, along with other Bolognese masters of the day, including Alessandro Tiarini, Francesco Albani [and] Michele Desubleo."
 
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
St Michael the Archangel
1644
oil on canvas
Chiesa di San Nicolò, Fabriano

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
St Michael the Archangel
1644
drawing (compositional study)
private collection

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
St Michael the Archangel
1644
drawing (compositional study)
Art Institute of Chicago

"The Archangel Michael in the church of S. Nicola, Fabriano, is one of the most elegant of Guercino's later altarpieces.  The clarity of its lighting, colour and form is much inspired by Reni's famous altarpiece of the subject in S. Maria della Concezione, Rome, painted in 1635 [directly below]."

Guido Reni
St Michael Archangel
1635
oil on canvas
Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome

– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)