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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Annunciation 1646 oil on canvas Collegiata di Santa Maria Maggiore, Pieve di Cento |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Annunciation (detail) 1646 oil on canvas Collegiata di Santa Maria Maggiore, Pieve di Cento |
"The Pieve di Cento altarpiece is one of the most beautiful in Guercino's oeuvre, the elegant movement of the figures balanced by the limited but forceful harmonies of red, green, brown and blue, set against a dark background, relieved on one side by a vista over distant countryside. The picture's invention is unusual, since the composition does not show the moment when the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin that she is about to conceive, but rather the earlier one of the angel receiving his instructions from God the Father."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Annunciation 1646 drawing (compositional study) Fondation Custodia, Paris |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) The Annunciation 1646 drawing (figure study - Angel) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Giovanni Battista Cecchi after Guercino The Annunciation 1777 engraving British Museum |
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| Gaetano Guadagnini after Guercino The Annunciation 1850 etching and engraving British Museum |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) God the Father 1646 oil on canvas Galleria Sabauda, Turin |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) God the Father 1646 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna |
Guercino painted two separate images of God the Father (above) to sit atop the altarpiece of The Circumcision (below). The version of God the Father now in Turin was mistakenly made too large. The artist replaced it with the version now in Bologna. When the French seized The Circumcision in 1796, removing it permanently from Italy, neither version accompanied it. All three paintings have now been separated for centuries.
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Circumcision of Christ 1646 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Circumcision of Christ 1646 drawing (compositional study) Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Andrea Scacciati after Guercino Circumcision of Christ ca. 1760 etching and aquatint after Guercino drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Circumcision of Christ 1646 drawing (compositional study) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Circumcision of Christ 1646 drawing (drapery study - Virgin) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Circumcision of Christ 1646 drawing (drapery study - Virgin) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Francesco Bartolozzi after Guercino Circumcision of Christ 1775 etching and engraving Wellcome Collection, London |
Рquoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonn̩ by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)