Giovanni Francesco Barbieri
(February 8, 1591 – December 9, 1666), best known as
Guercino or Il Guercino, was an
Italian Baroque painter from the region of
Emilia, and active in Rome
and Bologna
.
Guercino is Italian for
squinter, a nickname that was
given to him because he was
cross-eyed.
He is especially noted for his many superb
drawings.
Biography
Guercino
was born at Cento
, a village
between Bologna and Ferrara
.
By the age of 17 he was associated with
Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the
Bolognese School. By
1615 he moved to Bologna, where his work earned the praise of an
elder
Ludovico Carracci. He
painted two large canvases,
Elijah Fed by Ravens and
Samson Seized by
Philistines, in what appears to be a stark naturalist
Caravaggesque style (although it is unlikely he had been able to
see any of the Roman
Caravaggios
first-hand). They were painted for
Cardinal Serra, Papal Legate to
Ferrara.
The Arcadian Shepherds was
painted in 1618 contemporary with The Flaying of Marsyas by
Apollo in Palazzo
Pitti
. His first style, he often claimed, was
influenced by a canvas of
Carracci
in Cento. Some of his later pieces approach rather to the manner of
his great contemporary
Guido Reni, and
are painted with more lightness and clearness. Guercino was
esteemed very highly in his lifetime.
He was then recommended by Marchese
Enzo Bentivoglio to the Bolognese
Ludovisi Pope,
Pope Gregory XV. His
two years (1621-23) spent in Rome were very productive.
From this
stay date his frescoes of Aurora at the casino of the
Villa Ludovisi
and the ceiling in San
Crisogono
(1622) of
San Chrysogonus in Glory; his portrait of Pope Gregory
(now in the Getty
Museum
, and, what is considered his masterpiece, The
Burial of Saint Petronilla or St. Petronilla Altarpiece,
for the Vatican (now in the Museo Capitolini
).
The
Franciscan order of Reggio in 1655 paid him 300 ducats for the
altarpiece of Saint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Madonna
and Child (now in Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
, Kansas City). The Corsini also paid him 300
ducats for the
Flagellation of
Christ painted in 1657.
He was remarkable for the extreme rapidity of his execution—he
completed no fewer than 106 large altar-pieces for churches, and
his other paintings amount to about 144.
In 1626 he began his
frescoes in the Duomo of Piacenza
. Guercino continued to paint and teach up to
the time of his death in 1666, amassing a notable fortune.
References
Gallery
Image:Guercino 003.jpg|Susanna and the Elders,
1617Image:Guercino_005.jpg|The Return of the Prodigal Son,
1619Image:Guercino_001.jpg|Aurora,
1621Image:Ghiara_altare_guercino_reggio_emilia.jpg|Crucifixion of
Christ with Madonna and Saints Mary Magdalen, St. John and St.
Prospero at his feet, 1624-25Image:Guercino Semiramide
Babilonia.jpg|Semiramis Receives the News of Insurrection at
Babylon, 1645Image:Luke_evangelist_Guercino.JPG|St. Luke Displaying
a Painting of the Virgin, 1652-53Image:San_Domenico67.jpg|St.
Thomas writing the Holy Sacrament,
1662Image:Guercino_David_with_the_Head_of_Goliath.jpg|David with
the Head of GoliathImage:Guercino_002.jpg|St. Francis with an Angel
Playing ViolinImage:Guercino_san_paolo.jpg|St. PaulImage:Guercino -
Personification of Astrology - circa 1650-1655.jpg|Personification
of Astrology.
Blanton Museum of Art
, Texas
Image:Joseph and Potiphar's Wife - Giovanni
Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino, 1649 - NG Wash DC.jpg|Joseph
and Potiphar's Wife - Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino,
1649 - National
Gallery of Art
..
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