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Guercino

Guercino, 1591-1666, Italian painter whose original name was Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, b. near Bologna. He studied with Ludovico Carracci. Extremely skillful, prolific, and quick to finish his work, he was known for his frescoes, altarpieces, oils, and drawings. Between 1621 and 1623 he was in Rome, where he painted the Baroque ceiling frescos (Aurora) of the Casino Ludovisi and his superb Burial of St. Petronilla (Capitoline Mus., Rome). The classicist tendencies prevalent in Rome caused him to alter his style so that he never equaled the dramatic intensity of his early work. An extensive collection of his drawings is in the Royal Library at Windsor and other examples of his work are included in such major collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hermitage, and the Getty Museum.

See D. Mahon, Studies in Seicento Art and Theory (1947); J. Brooks, Guercino: Mind to Paper (2006); S. Prasad, Guercino: Stylistic Evolution in Focus (2006).

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

Il Guercino

(Italian: “The Squinter”) orig. Giovanni Francesco Barbieri

(born Feb. 8, 1591, Cento, Papal States—died Dec. 22, 1666, Bologna) Italian painter. Strongly influenced by the Bolognese school, he was called to Rome in 1621 by the Bolognese pope Gregory XV and, among other commissions, decorated the Villa Ludovisi; the ceiling fresco Aurora is painted to appear as if there were no ceiling, so that Aurora's chariot is seen to float directly over the building. He returned to his native town of Cento in 1623. In 1642, upon the death of Guido Reni, he moved to Bologna and was its leading painter until his death. One of the outstanding draftsmen of his age, he had a profound impact on the development of 17th-century Baroque decoration.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Guercino, Il

(Italian: “The Squinter”) orig. Giovanni Francesco Barbieri

Learn more about Guercino, Il with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Guercino

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 (Et in Arcadia ego) 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.