09 Works, Today, February 8th. is artist Guercino's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #039

Guercino  (1591–1666)

Detail; Aurora, c. 1621

Fresco

Casino di Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi 

In Roman mythology, Aurōra renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the Sun. 

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666), better known as Guercino, was born into a family of peasant farmers in Cento. Being cross-eyed, at an early age he acquired the nickname by which he is universally known, Guercino, meaning 'squinter'. Mainly self-taught, at the age of 16, he worked as apprentice in the shop of Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the Bolognese School. An early commission was for the decoration with frescos (1615–1616) of Casa Pannini in Cento, where the naturalism of his landscapes already reveals considerable artistic independence (See below). 

Guercino  (1591–1666)

The harvest, circa 1618

Fresco (detached fresco)

66 x 166 cm

Civic art gallery, Il Guercino, , Ferrara, Italy

One of the frescos created (with the assistance of Lorenzo Gennari) for Casa Pannini in Cento. (Guercino himself came from a family of peasant farmers.)

In Bologna, he was winning the praise of Ludovico Carracci. He always acknowledged that his early style had been influenced by study of a Madonna painted by Ludovico Carracci for the Capuchin church in Cento, affectionately known as "La Carraccina (See below).

Ludovico Carracci, (1555–1619)

The Carraccina

Madonna and Child, Saints Joseph, Francis and two patrons, c. 1591

Oil on canvas

Civic art gallery, Il Guercino, , Ferrara, Italy

Ludovico (or Lodovico) Carracci (21 April 1555 – 13 November 1619) was an Italian, early-Baroque painter, etcher, and printmaker born in Bologna. His works are characterized by a strong mood invoked by broad gestures and flickering light that create spiritual emotion and are credited with reinvigorating Italian art, especially fresco art, which was subsumed with formalistic Mannerism. He died in Bologna in 1619. More on Ludovico Carracci

His painting Et in Arcadia ego from around 1618–1622 contains the first known usage anywhere of the Latin motto, later taken up by Poussin and others, signifying that death lurks even in the most idyllic setting (See below). 

Guercino  (1591–1666)

Et in Arcadia ego/  Also in Paradise I am, circa 1618

Oil on canvas

Height: 78 cm (30.7 in); Width: 89 cm (35 in)

Palazzo Barberini

The painting shows two young shepherds staring at a skull, with a mouse and a blowfly, placed onto a cippus with the words "Et in Arcadia ego". This phrase is meant as a warning, that even in Arcadia/Paradise, death is always present. The phrase appears for the first time in art and architecture in this work. 

The painting is connected with Guercino's The Flaying of Marsyas by Apollo in Palazzo Pitti (1618), where the same group of shepherds is present (See below).  More on this painting

Guercino  (1591–1666)

Apollo flaying Marsyas, c. 1618

Oil on canvas

Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

Marsyas was an expert player on the double-piped double reed instrument known as the aulos. He challenged Apollo to a contest of music and lost his hide and life. In antiquity, literary sources often emphasize the hubris of Marsyas and the justice of his punishment. More on Marsyas 

The dramatic composition of this canvas (related to his Flaying of Marsyas by Apollo (1617–1618) created for The Grand Duke of Tuscany, which shares the same pair of shepherds, is typical of Guercino's early works, which are often tumultuous in conception. 

Guercino  (1591–1666) 

Samson Captured by the Philistines, c. 1619

Oil on canvas

75 1/4 x 93 1/4 in. (191.1 x 236.9 cm)

Metropolitan Museum of Art  

This work showcases the biblical scene where Samson the Nazarite is betrayed by his lover Delilah. In the painting Samson is at the center, though is face cannot be seen, and surrounding him are the Philistines who have come to blind him after cutting off his hair, his source of strength. The men holding the tool that will be used to blind Samson can be seen as well as the man holding the scissors that had been used to cut Samson's hair. The figure in the righthand corner is interpreted to either be an angel looking on reminding Samson that his eventual sacrifice to save the Hebrews is right and seen in a good light by God or as an onlooker who was fleeing the scene but could not help from looking back. More on this painting

He painted two large canvases, Samson Seized by Philistines (1619) (See above), and Elijah Fed by Ravens (1620) (See below), for Cardinal Serra, a Papal Legate to Ferrara. Painted at a time when it is unlikely that Guercino could have seen Caravaggio's work in Rome, these works nevertheless display a starkly naturalistic Caravaggesque style.

Guercino, 1591 - 1666

Elijah fed by Ravens

Oil on canvas

195 x 156.5 cm

 The National Gallery, London

God was displeased with King Ahab, and sent His prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, to say him, "As the Lord God of Israel liveth there shall not be dew nor rain for years in all Israel." God knew that these words would make Ahab angry with Elijah, so He commanded Elijah to get out of Ahab's way. "Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." More on Elijah and the ravens

Guercino was recommended by Marchese Enzo Bentivoglio to the newly elected Bolognese Ludovisi Pope, Pope Gregory XV in 1621. The years he spent in Rome, 1621–23, were very productive. From this period are his frescoes Aurora at the casino of the Villa Ludovisi, the ceiling in San Crisogono (1622) of San Chrysogonus in Glory, the portrait of Pope Gregory XV (now in the Getty Museum) (See below), and the St. Petronilla Altarpiece for St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (now in the Museo Capitolini) (See below).

Guercino, 1591 - 1666

Pope Gregory XV, c. 1622–1623

Oil on canvas

133.7 × 98.4 cm (52 5/8 × 38 3/4 in.)

Getty Center

Pope Gregory XV (9 January 1554 – 8 July 1623), born Alessandro Ludovisi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 February 1621 to his death in 1623. More on Pope Gregory XV

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino)

Burial of Saint Petronilla, c. 1623

Oil on canvas

720 cm × 423 cm (280 in × 167 in)

Capitoline Museums, Rome

The painting simultaneously depicts the burial and the welcoming to heaven of the martyred Saint Petronilla. The altarpiece was painted for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, for a chapel dedicated to the saint and containing her relics. It was later transferred to the Quirinal Palace, before being taken to Pais by Napoleon's troops. Brought back to Italy by Antonio Canova, it was placed in the Capitoline Museums of Rome in 1818, where it is currently displayed.

Petronilla, whose name means "little rock", is popularly believed to have been the daughter of Saint Peter, whose Greek name, Petros, means "rock". More on this painting

Following the death of Gregory XV in 1623, Guercino returned to his hometown of Cento. In 1626, he began his frescoes in the Duomo of Piacenza. Some of his later works are painted with much greater luminosity and clarity. In 1655, the Franciscan Order of Reggio 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. More on Guercino

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