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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Vision of St Jerome 1652 oil on canvas private collection, Milan |
"Denis Mahon identified this St Jerome as that ordered in 1652 by Giovan Battista Tartaglioni on behalf of the Conte Alfonso II di Novellara, together with its pendant St John the Baptist, now untraced. The count made a gift of them to his brother-in-law, Alberico II Cibo (1607-90), Principe di Massa, the older brother of Guercino's later patron Cardinal [Alderano] Cibo (1613-1700) – [see the Martyrdom of St Catherine at the bottom of this post]."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St John the Baptist ca. 1652 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Paul the Hermit ca. 1652-55 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Paul the Hermit ca. 1652-55 drawing (compositional study) private collection |
"[St Paul the Hermit] and the Penitent Magdalene [directly below], with which it has long been paired, were discovered by Denis Mahon in the reserve collection of the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, following the exhibition of Guercino's paintings held in Bologna in 1968, and identified by him as two of a set of four paintings of penitent saints that Guercino made to decorate his house. . . . Benedetto Gennari, who became Guercino's sole heir following the death in 1688 of his younger brother Cesare, was soon engaged in selling the better paintings of his uncle that remained in the house. . . . The two canvases were still in the house when Benedetto died in 1715 and are listed in the 1719 inventory of his effects. They were subsequently in the Zambeccari collection, Bologna, where they are recorded in an inventory of 15 March 1796. In 1883, they were acquired by the Pinacoteca Nazionale."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Penitent Magdalene ca. 1652-55 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Angel with Hagar and Ishmael 1652-53 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Angel with Hagar and Ishmael 1652-53 drawing (compositional study) private collection |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Angel with Hagar and Ishmael 1652-53 drawing (drapery study - Hagar) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
"Malvasia recorded the picture – one of the most poetic and admired pictures in Britain during the second half of the 18th century – as made in 1652 'per Siena'. The Sienese gentleman Pandolfo Savini . . . paid 240 ducats (equal to 300 scudi) for it on 17 March 1653. As a collector, Savini also owned works by Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci and Poussin."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Two Cherubim 1652-53 oil on canvas private collection |
"[In 1655 Guercino received payment for St Luke Painting the Virgin from the Reggio merchant Aurelio Zaneletti.] We know, however, that the picture was already finished by 17 April 1653 from a letter Guercino wrote to the guardian of the monastery of S. Francesco at Reggio; in it, the painter further stated that he had added a sopraqquadro of two little angels [directly above]. . . . The church was rebuilt in 1709-10, and Guercino's paintings were given to the Bolognese painter Antonio Fratacci in exchange for his work."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Luke painting the Virgin 1652-53 oil on canvas Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) St Luke painting the Virgin 1652-53 drawing (drapery study - St Luke) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Martyrdom of St Agnes 1653 oil on canvas Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome |
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Martyrdom of St Catherine 1653-54 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
"According to Malvasia, Guercino executed 'il martirio di S. Caterina per la communità di Cento, donato all'Eminen. Cibo' in 1653. Cardinal Alderano Cibo (1613-1700), Legate of Ferrara, made a down payment of 500 lire on 4 January 1654 and remitted the balance of 151 lire on 24 November 1654, shortly before he left the position at the end of the year. Two centuries later, in 1850, it entered the collection of the Hermitage from the collection of King William II of the Netherlands (reg. 1840-49), presumably sold through his widow, the Russian Romanov princess Anna Paulowna (1795-1865)."
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| Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Martyrdom of St Catherine 1653-54 drawing (compositional study) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
– quoted texts from The Paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné by Nicholas Turner (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017)