 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Guardian Angel 1641 oil on canvas Museo Civico, Fano |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Guardian Angel 1641 drawing (compositional study) Royal Library, Windsor |
"Dated under 1641 by [Carlo Cesare] Malvasia, the altarpiece was commissioned by Vincenzo Nolfi (1594-1665) to decorate his chapel in the church of Sant'Agostino in the coastal town of Fano, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, in the Marches. . . . Nolfi was a lawyer, letterato and patron of the arts, who was resident for periods in Rome. The painting remained in the church until shortly before the middle of the last century and it is mentioned in local guides. The church was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, the altarpiece having been removed to safety shortly before. . . . In 1848, the English Romantic poet Robert Browning (1812-89) wrote his celebrated poem 'The Guardian Angel' inspired by Guercino's painting: 'we were at Fano, and three times we went / to sit and see him in his chapel there.'"
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness 1641 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness 1641 drawing (figure study) private collection |
"From the point of view of the patron's rank, one of the most prestigious commissions of Guercino's career was the St John the Baptist painted for the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinando III (reg. 1637-57). . . . The composition of the Vienna St John the Baptist is in blatant rivalry with Guido Reni's several treatments of the subject, the best known of which [directly below] is that now in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. The prototype in the back of the mind of both Bolognese masters was that of Raphael's St John the Baptist Preaching [also below] in the Uffizi, Florence, datable 1517-18, disseminated through a chiaroscuro woodcut by Ugo da Carpi (fl. 1502-32). Of Guercino's six subsequent whole-length representations of St John the Baptist in the wilderness, often seen before the mouth of a cave, either preaching, taking water in a cup from a spring, or simply in divine contemplation, none is as commanding and as strongly Raphaelesque as the canvas in Vienna."
 |
| Guido Reni St John the Baptist in the Wilderness 1636-37 oil on canvas Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
 |
| Raphael St John the Baptist Preaching ca. 1517-18 oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
 |
| Ugo da Carpi after Raphael St John the Baptist Preaching ca. 1520-30 chiaroscuro woodcut British Museum |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Vision of St Jerome 1641 oil on canvas Museo Civico di Rimini |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Vision of St Jerome (detail) 1641 oil on canvas Museo Civico di Rimini |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Vision of St Jerome (detail) 1641 oil on canvas Museo Civico di Rimini |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Vision of St Jerome 1641 drawing (compositional study) Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal |
"[The Vision of St Jerome] – commissioned by the distinguished Theatine friar and future Bishop of Rimini, Conte Tommaso da Carpegna – was located on the high altar of the [Chiesa dell'Oratorio di S. Girolamo, Rimini] until shortly before the building's destruction in the Second World War, when it was transferred to the Confraternita di S. Girolamo, where it remained until 1987, when it was placed on deposit at the Museo della Città, Rimini."
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Francis and Clare 1641 oil on canvas Galleria Nazionale di Parma |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Francis and Clare 1641 drawing (drapery study - Virgin) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Francis and Clare 1641 drawing (drapery study - Virgin) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
 |
| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with Sts Francis and Clare 1641 drawing (figure study - St Francis) British Museum |
"Listed by Malvasia under 1641, the altarpiece was destined for the church of the Capuchin nuns (now called S. Maria degli Angeli), Parma, where it was originally located; after having been removed by the French in 1796, it entered the museum on its return to Italy in 1815."
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)