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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Amor Virtuoso 1654-55 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Self-portrait before a Painting of 'Amor Fedele' 1654-55 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
"The Self-portrait before a Painting of 'Amor Fedele' was commissioned by Giovan Donato Correggio, who the previous year had ordered Amor Virtuoso [as well as the paired canvases of St Sebastian and Sophonisba]. His payment of 26 ungari (55 scudi) for the Self-portrait is listed in the account book on 26 April 1655. As depictions of different types of love, the two works are paired thematically, but the Amor Virtuoso is smaller in size and horizontal in format. They were hung in the same room of the gallery overlooking the Grand Canal."
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| Francesco Bartolozzi after Guercino Self-portrait before a Painting of 'Amor Fedele' 1764 etching and engraving Detroit Institute of Arts |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Self-portrait before a Painting of 'Amor Fedele' 1654-55 drawing (study of dog) private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Blessing Christ 1654-55 oil on canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Blessing Christ 1654-55 drawing (compositional study) Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
"As Malvasia noted under 1654, the Blessing Christ originally served as the sopraqquadro to the altarpiece of St John the Baptist Preaching [previous post], formerly in the church of the Cappuccini at Forlì, and now in the city's Pinacoteca Comunale. In the account book the sopraqquadro is not mentioned separately from the altarpiece: the cost of the two canvases was lumped together, resulting in a price that was slightly higher than Guercino's standard charge for an altarpiece with a whole-length figure. The Blessing Christ was removed from the church in 1811 and taken to the Brera."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Assumption of the Virgin 1655 oil on canvas Ackland Art Museum of North Carolina |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Reuben showing Joseph's Bloody Coat to their Father Jacob 1655 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Reuben showing Joseph's Bloody Coat to their Father Jacob 1655 drawing (compositional study) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
"[Reuben showing Joseph's Bloody Coat to their Father Jacob] was painted for the botanist and apothecary Giacomo Zanoni four years after the Judith with the Head of Holofernes now in Brest, for which it was apparently conceived as a pendant. It was not mentioned by Malvasia, but Zanoni's payment for it is recorded in the account book on 9 June 1655. The artist charged a total cost of 340 lire, which was remitted partly in cash (110 ducats, the equivalent of 137 scudi, 2 lire) and part in exchange for a gilded daybed (valued at 210 lire)."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with the Magdalene and St Catherine of Alexandria (Virgin of Soriano) 1655 oil on canvas Chiesa dei Domenicani, Bolzano |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Virgin and Child with the Magdalene and St Catherine of Alexandria (Virgin of Soriano) 1655 drawing (hand study - Virgin) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
"[Guercino's Virgin of Soriano] represents the dream of Fra Lorenzo, a Dominican monk from Soriano in southern Italy, in which he is handed a full-length portrait of St Dominic (holding a lily and a book) by the Virgin, accompanied by Sts Mary Magdalene and Catherine of [Alexandria]. When he awoke the following morning, just such a portrait was at his bedside, and it soon transpired that it had miraculous properties."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St John the Baptist 1655 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St John the Baptist 1655 drawing (compositional study) private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St John the Baptist 1655 drawing (figure study) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Paolo Antonio Barbieri and (possibly) Guercino Ortolana ca. 1655 oil on canvas private collection |
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)