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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Hersilia separating Romulus and Tatius (Battle of the Sabines) 1645 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
Painted for the Parisian hôtel of Louis Phélypeaux, Sieur de La Vrillière, Secretary of State to Louis XIII, who had commissioned Cato bidding Farewell to his Son in 1637 and Coriolanus in 1643.
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Hersilia separating Romulus and Tatius 1645 drawing (figure study) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Hersilia separating Romulus and Tatius 1645 drawing (head study) private collection |
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| Guercino Hersilia separating Romulus and Tatius 1645 drawing (figure study) Courtauld Gallery, London |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Penitent Magdalene 1645 oil on canvas private collection |
"[The Penitent Magdalene of 1645 was commissioned by Count Panici of Macerata, a former governor of Cento.] Before its sale at auction in Zurich in 2011, the picture formed part of the Hohenzollern collection at Schloss Hechingen, Baden Würtemburg."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Lucretia and St Gertrude 1645 oil on canvas Galleria Sabauda, Turin |
For the figure of St Lucretia (on the left, above), a 4th-century virgin martyr of Spain, Guercino reversed and reused the head and shoulders of his image of a pagan who bore the same name – the early Roman heroine Lucretia (below) painted the previous year.
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Lucretia 1644 oil on canvas UniCredit, Bologna |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Lucretia and St Gertrude 1645 drawing (figure-study - Putto) private collection |
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| Luigi Cunego after Guercino Pietà (lost painting) 1645 engraving made in 1783, when the work hung in the Galleria Colonna, Rome Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1645 oil on canvas (trial version) Cobbe Collection, Hatchlands, Surrey |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1645 drawing (compositional study) Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1645 drawing (compositional study) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1645 drawing (figure study) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1645 oil on canvas (finished version) private collection, New York |
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| Caterina Piotti Pirola after Guercino Queen Semiramis receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon 1830 engraving Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
"[Guercino had painted two earlier versions of this subject, in 1624 and in 1627-28.] In both, Semiramis is seated on her throne as she turns to listen to the messenger announcing the news of the revolt of Babylon. In the commission of more than 15 years later for Cardinal [Federigo] Cornaro, she stands up to face the messenger, raising her hand in surprise and in the excitement of the moment jolting the table in front of her and setting her crown askew."