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Shown from the thighs up, a light-skinned man and woman gesture dramatically, partially covered only by colorful lengths of loosely draped fabric in this horizontal painting. To our left, the man stands with his lean, muscled body facing us but he turns his face to our right in profile to look at the woman with his chin dropped. His thick, dark hair is brushed back. He has a long, straight nose and his lips are parted. His left arm, on our right, is raised to shoulder height, elbow pointed out at the woman, and that hand is clenched in a fist in front of his chest. His other arm is slightly bent at his side, that hand also balled into a fist. A narrow, vivid cobalt-blue cloth winds and flutters around his body from behind him to our left, over the raised arm, and across his hips. To our right, the woman stands with her back to the man, and she looks back over her right shoulder. Her copper-red hair blows back from her face, lifting off her shoulders. She has light brown eyes under lowered brows, and the corners of her pink lips are pulled slightly down. She wears a teardrop-shaped pearl earring from the ear we can see and a headdress wrapped with more pearls at the back of her head. Her body is pale, soft, and rounded. Her arms bend at the elbows to cross in an X-shape in front of her bare breasts. With her left hand, closer to the man, she points an index finger at him. Around her body swirl two layers of satiny draperies, the outer one a honey orange, and an inner layer in dusty pink. Both people are lit from our right brightly enough to create deep shadows. Behind them, a bed at hip height has ivory-colored linens and a dark green drapery hanging to each side. The space recedes into darkness beyond the bed, contrasting with the brightness of the people.

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino

Amnon and Tamar, 1649-1650

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 33

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 123 x 158.5 cm (48 7/16 x 62 3/8 in.)

framed: 148.1 x 186.4 x 10.2 cm (58 5/16 x 73 3/8 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Patrons' Permanent Fund

Accession Number

1986.17.1

Artists / Makers

Guercino (painter) Bolognese, 1591 - 1666

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Commissioned by Aurelio Zaneletti [or Zanoletti] of Reggio in 1649.[1] (Samuel Woodburn, 1820-1823).[2] Charles Stewart, 3d marquess of Londonderry [1778-1854], London, by 1833;[3] by descent to Alexander Charles Robert Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th marquess of Londonderry [b. 1937], Wynyard Park;[4] purchased 1986 by NGA.

[1] This painting and NGA 1986.17.2 were produced by Guercino between 1649 and 1650. Zaneletti was a collector from Reggio Emilia, and the artist's account book records on 10 March 1649 a down payment of twenty-one scudi by Zaneletti for a "quadro con due mezze figure." On 25 August of the same year Guercino recorded that he had received the final payment from Zaneletti of 150 scudi for the finished painting of a "fuga di Gioseppe." An entry in the account book of 26 March 1650 records another payment of 150 scudi from Zaneletti for a painting of Amnon and Tamar.

[2] That the dealer Samuel Woodburn purchased the painting and its companion in Italy and transported them to England is suggested by a series of letters from his good friend Sir Thomas Lawrence: published in D. E. Williams, The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, 2 vols., London, 1831; this reference was provided by Burton Fredericksen of The Getty Provenance Index (letter of 8 February 1988, NGA curatorial files). On 29 June 1820, Lawrence asked Samuel Woodburn, then on the continent, probably in Italy, "What will you sell the Potiphar's Wife for, unaccompanied by the other picture? Suppose you were to make up your mind to this, Lord D. likes the other best. There's a good chance of your selling the Potiphar's Wife to the M..." (Williams 1831: 2:280). Writing to Woodburn in Rome on 17 December 1822, Lawrence records the arrival at Calais of "the Guercinos" (Williams 1831: 2:281). In letters to Woodburn in Paris of early 1823 and of 8 March 1823, Lawrence says how much he likes "the Guercinos," especially the Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (Williams 1831, 2:294, 413). "The M" may be Lawrence's good friend and patron, Charles Stewart, who, however, succeeded to the marquesate of Londonderry only in 1822. Although Stewart owned the paintings by 1833 (see note 3), there is no record that he purchased them from Woodburn.

[3] M. Passavant, Tour of a German Artist in England, 2 vols., London, 1836: 178, mentions the paintings in the Londonderry collection, misidentifying the Amnon and Tamar as "Tarquin and Lucretia."

[4] M. Montgomery Hyde, Londonderry House and Its Pictures, London, 1937: 15, 56.

Associated Names

Artemis Fine Arts Inc.
Stewart, 3rd marquess of Londonderry, Charles William
Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th marquess of Londonderry, Alexander Charles Robert
Woodburn, Samuel
Zaneletti, Aurelio

Exhibition History

1986: The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, shown only at National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1986-1987, not in cat.

1991: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino 1591-1666, Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna, 1991, no. 121, color repro.

1991: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino 1591-1666, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 1991-1992, no. 66, color repro.

1992: Guercino: Master Painter of the Baroque, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1992, no. 48, color repro.

1996: Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 66-67, color repro.

1998: "Sovrane Passioni. Le raccolte d'arte della Ducale Galleria Estense, Galleria Estense, Palazzo dei Musei, Modena, 1998, no. 186, repro.

Technical Summary

The support is a heavily and coarsely woven twill fabric. The ground is dark and thick with large white particles; its fine pebbly surface shows through the thinly applied paint layer. X-radiographs reveal a large dense area of ground extending in a triangular shape from the upper-right corner; on the left it extends down to the level of Amnon's shoulders. It bears no relation to the composition. The paint appears to be more thinly and spontaneously applied than in the pendant. No artist's changes have been detected.

The tacking margins have been opened and incorporated into the present picture surface. There is a large tear at the right of Amnon's head and another between Tamar's right shoulder and Amnon's left elbow. Scattered losses have been retouched throughout. Extensive abrasion is located in the background drapery, at the bottom of Amnon's blue drapery, and in the flesh tones. The sinking-in of the green background curtain has altered the contrast with the foreground figures. Discolored varnish was removed and the painting was restored by Michael Swicklik in 1986.

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, 376.

1841: Malvasia, Carlo Cesare. Felsina Pittrice. Vite de' Pittori Bolognesi con aggiunte correzioni e note inedite dell'autore di Giampietro Zanotti e di altri scrittori. 2 vols. Bologna, 1974: 267, 329-330 (originally published 1678).

1968: Mahon, Denis. Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591-1666: Catalogo critico dei dipinti). Exh. cat. Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, 1968: 188.

1982: Artioli, Nerio, and Elio Monducci, with Denis Mahon. Dipinti "reggiani" del Bonone e del Guercino. Exh. cat. Basilica della B.V. della Ghiara, Reggio Emilia, 1982: 108-110, cat. 20-21 (not exhibited).

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: 481 n. 2.

1988: Salerno, Luigi. I dipinti del Guercino. Rome, 1988: 332-333, no. 261-262, color repro.

1989: Mahon, Denis, and Nicholas Turner. The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle. Cambridge, 1989: 192, no. 657.

1989: Willette, Thomas. "Guercino's Paintings of 'Joseph with the Wife of Potiphar' and 'Amnon and Tamar,' and Research on Massimo Stanzione." Center, Research Reports and Record of Activities 9 (1989): 97-98.

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. 122, repro.

1991: Mazza, Angelo. La collezione dei dipinti antichi della Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena. Bologna, 1991: 147.

1991: Russell, Francis. "Guercino in England." In Guercino in Britain. Paintings from British Collections. Exh. cat. National Gallery, London. The Burlington Magazine 133, suppl. London, 1991: 10, figs. 10-11.

1991: Stone, David. Guercino: catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1991: 255-257, no. 246, color repro.

1991: Stone, David. Guercino, Master Draftsman. Works from North American Collections. Exh. cat. Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bologna, 1991: 74-76, figs. 29b-c; 222.

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. 48, 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: 162-170, color repro. 164.

1997: Il libro dei conti del Guercino, 1629-1666. Ed. Barbara Ghelfi. Bologna, 1997: 146, no. 421.

1999: Seeing Double: Two Versions of Guercino's 'Joseph and Potiphar's Wife'. Exh. cat. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, 1999: fig. 8, color repro.