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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Suicide of Cato 1641 oil on canvas Palazzo Rosso, Genoa |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Suicide of Cato 1641 drawing (compositional study) Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Lucretia 1641 oil on canvas Fondazione Marini Clarelli Santi, Perugia |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Blessed Felix Cantalice receiving the Christ Child from the Virgin 1641-42 oil on canvas Galleria Estense, Modena |
"According to [Carlo Cesare] Malvasia, the altarpiece [of the Blessed Felix Cantalice] was completed in 1642 for 'P. Capuccino d'Este, già Duca', in other words Capuchin monk Fra Giambattista da Moderna (1591-1644), who had reigned briefly as Alfonso III d'Este, Duke of Modena. . . . Before taking his vows, Fra Giambattista da Modena had been an accomplished military leader, but devastated by the death of his wife, Isabella of Savoy (1591-1626), his thoughts turned towards spiritual matters. Three years later, just one year into his reign, he abdicated to become a Capuchin monk. When the virulent plague of North Italy struck Modena in 1630-31, killing more than half the city's population, Fra Giambattista helped the sick and dying. After the plague had abated, he directed his preaching against the excesses of courtly life, causing vexation to his son and heir, Francesco I d'Este, who built him a Capuchin convent in the secluded Estense town of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana in faraway Tuscany. . . . At Fra Giambattista's death in 1644, Duke Francesco had the altarpiece installed in the Capuchin church at Modena, where it remained until the end of the 18th century."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Sebastian 1641-42 oil on canvas Pushkin State Museum, Moscow |
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| Eugène Huot after Guercino St Sebastian ca. 1845-47 lithograph British Museum |
"[St Sebastian] is recorded by Malvasia under 1642, the year in which a sonnet by Luigi Manzini (1604-57) about it . . . was published in Bologna. The patron, the Bolognese doctor Niccolò Lemmi, paid 53 ducats (71 ½ scudi) for it on 6 January 1642. The painting is later recorded as in the Casa Taruffi, Bologna, but by 1808, according to [Jacopo Alessandro] Calvi, had been sold and sent to Paris. It was acquired by the Italian Ambassador to Paris Ferdinando Marescalchi (1754-1816), who commissioned Francesco Rosaspina to make a drawn copy of it and then presented it as a gift to Empress Josephine. In 1814-15 the painting is recorded in her collection at Malmaison. In 1829 it was acquired by Nicholas I of Russia."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin of the Rosary with Sts Dominic and Catherine of Siena 1641-42 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Marco Evangelista, Osimo |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin of the Rosary with Sts Dominic and Catherine of Siena (detail) 1641-42 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Marco Evangelista, Osimo |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin of the Rosary with Sts Dominic and Catherine of Siena 1641-42 drawing (compositional study) Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, Derbyshire |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin of the Rosary with Sts Dominic and Catherine of Siena 1641-42 drawing (figure study - Virgin) Royal Library, Windsor |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin of the Rosary with Sts Dominic and Catherine of Siena 1641-42 drawing (figure studies - Putti) private collection |
"The idea for the commission for the church of S. Marco at Osimo originated with 'il già Cardinale Araceli', as Malvasia described him, that is the late Cardinal Agostino Galamini (1552-1639), who was titular cardinal of the church of the Aracoeli in Rome and from 1620 the Bishop of Osimo. Unfortunately, he died on 4 September 1639 before the altarpiece could be realized. . . . Some work on the protracted project, ultimately destined for the Chapel of the Rosary erected in memory of Cardinal Galamini, is documented in 1640, [but final payment was not recorded until 1643]."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Francis in Ecstasy 1642 oil on canvas Landesmuseum, Mainz |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Francis in Ecstasy 1642 drawing (compositional study) private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Francis in Ecstasy 1642 drawing (compositional study) Courtauld Gallery, London |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Francis in Ecstasy 1642 drawing (compositional study) Musée du Louvre |
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)