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Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino

Cardinal Francesco Cennini, 1625

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 29

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 117.4 x 96.2 cm (46 1/4 x 37 7/8 in.)

framed: 147.6 x 126.7 x 6.9 cm (58 1/8 x 49 7/8 x 2 11/16 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.20

Artists / Makers

Guercino (painter) Bolognese, 1591 - 1666

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Dr. J. Seymour Maynard, London; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 29 January 1954, no. 58);[1] (Thomas Agnew and Sons, London); sold that same day to (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, London, and Zurich);[2] purchased 1955 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] Charles Beddington of the Old Master Picture Department at Christie's checked their records and found no earlier provenance for the painting; he suggested that, as Maynard was a frequenter of the London sale rooms, he may have purchased the picture at Sotheby's (letter of 2 January 1991 in NGA curatorial files). No reference to the painting appears in sales indexes prior to 1954.

[2] Stockbooks, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, no. 1185

[3] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII Century, London, 1973: 78, and Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:246. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/443.

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Koetser Gallery, David M.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Maynard, J. Seymour, Dr.

Exhibition History

1986: The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986-1987, no. 166, color repro.

1991: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino 1591-1666, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 1991-1992, no. 37, color repro.

1991: Il Guercino e la Bottega, Pinacoteca Civica e Chiesa del Rosario, Cento, Italy, 1991, no. 64, color repro. (cat. titled Il Guercino, 1591-1666: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Bologna).

1992: Guercino: Master Painter of the Baroque, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1992, no. 29, color repro.

Technical Summary

The support is a heavy, open-weave twill fabric. The ground is a medium-thick layer of somewhat pebbly, dark pink. The heavy, uneven texture visible in x-radiographs results from its uneven application and obscures any changes that might have been made by the artist. The paint is applied rapidly and thickly in broad, heavily loaded brushstrokes, producing a light impasto. The flesh tones, however, are applied much more thinly and laboriously; the shadows are painted in a particularly thin manner.

The tacking margins have been removed, but cusping suggests that the painting retains its original dimensions. Small areas of loss and abrasion are scattered throughout and have been inpainted. The milky, discolored varnish distorts the tonal relationships. Discolored varnish was removed and the painting was restored by Mario Modestini in 1955.

Bibliography

1678: Malvasia, Carlo Cesare. Felsina Pittrice. Vite de' Pittori Bolognesi con aggiunte correzioni e note inedite deel'autore di Giampietro Zanotti e di altri scrittori. 2 vols. Bologna, 1678: ii, 367.

1841: Malvasia, Carlo Cesare. Felsina Pittrice. Vite de' Pittori Bolognesi con aggiunte correzioni e note inedite deel'autore di Giampietro Zanotti e di altri scrittori. 2 vols. Bologna, 1841: 261, no. 2 (originally published 1678).

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 65.

1968: Mahon, Denis. Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591-1666: Catalogo critico dei dipinti). Exh. cat. Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, 1968: 156.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 57, repro.

1968: Zucker, Mark J. "Guercinio's Portrait of Cardinal Francesco Cennini." Report and Studies in the History of Art I (1967-68): 113-114, repro.

1973: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 78, fig. 141.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 168, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:245-246; 2:pl. 167.

1981: Mahon, Denis. "Guercino as a Portraitist and His 'Pope Gregory XV.'" Apollo 113 (1981): 232, 234, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 230, no. 294, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 195, repro.

1986: Mahon, Denis. In The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Exh. cat. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986-1987. Washington, D.C., 1986: 475, no. 166, repro.

1988: Salerno, Luigi. I dipinti del Guercino. Rome, 1988: 173; 190, no. 108.

1988: Southorn, Janet. Power and Display in the Seventeenth Century. The Arts and Their Patrons in Modena and Ferrara. Cambridge, 1988: 115, pl. 84.

1991: Ebert-Schifferer, Sybille, ed. Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, 1591-1666. Exh. cat. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; Cento, Pinacoteca Civica; Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Bologna, 1991: no. 64, repro.

1991: Stone, David. Guercino: catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1991: no. 101, repro.

1992: Mahon, Denis, et al. Guercino: Master Painter of the Baroque. Exh. cat. Bologna, Museo civico archeologico; Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1992: no. 29, repro.

1996: De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 158-162, color repro. 161.