4 - Giovanni Francesco BARBIERI, known as GUERCINO (Cento, 1591 – Bologna, 1666)

Giovanni Francesco BARBIERI, known as GUERCINO (Cento, 1591 – Bologna, 1666) Herminia Finding the Wounded Tancred Oil on canvas 148.5 x 188 cm Provenance Collection of Gian Lorenzo Mellini and Stella Rudolph, purchased from a castle in the 1960s Bibliography: - Gian Lorenzo Mellini, “Guercino According to Himself,” Labyrinthos, VI/11 (1987), pp. 66–84. - Nicholas Turner, *The Paintings of Guercino: A Revised and Expanded Catalogue Raisonné*, Rome, Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017, p. 326, no. 69.I (illustrated). - Nicholas Turner, The Paintings of Guercino, 2017, no. 69.I; Nicholas Turner, “Caravaggio and Guercino: Replicas, Copies, Duplicates, and ‘Bozzettoni’,” About Art Online, February 2018. Due to the existence of a second version at the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome, this work was exceptionally granted permission to leave the country by the Italian cultural heritage authorities. Note: Our painting is the initial version of Guercino’s masterpiece housed at the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome, a finished sketch of identical dimensions (1). The Roman painting was commissioned in 1618 by Marcello Provenzale, a mosaic artist from Cento who was close to Pope Paul V, who then gave it to Cardinal Stefano Pignatelli. The cardinal died in 1623, and the painting passed to Donna Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj, who kept it in her palace in San Martino al Cimino; in 1657, it was incorporated into the family collection (2). It is evident that the figures are the same size in both versions. The most significant differences lie in the slight shift in Herminia’s left hand, Tancred’s legs, and the head and ears of the horse in the upper right corner. The modeling of the protagonists’ faces is less refined; one notes the absence of highlights in certain shadows (for example, around the neck and on Herminie’s profile), which will be rendered in greater detail in the final painting. The subject is taken from *Jerusalem Delivered*, a heroic poem by Torquato Tasso from 1581, which recounts the adventures and romantic entanglements of several young people during the Crusades. The chosen episode depicts the discovery of the lifeless body of the Christian knight Tancred by the Muslim princess Herminie, who is secretly in love with him (Canto XIX, stanzas 103–110): “The name Tancred was enough for her; mad or intoxicated, she rushed forward and beheld that handsome face, now pale. She did not dismount; she leaped from her horse.” Tancred, after being wounded by Argante, was rescued by his squire Vafrin—the figure wearing a turban seen here on the left, showing Tancred’s wounds to his distraught beloved. Herminie will eventually bandage Tancred’s bleeding wounds with strands of her own hair (a theme found in the paintings of Mola and Poussin). Our painting, with its strong chiaroscuro contrasts, dates from the artist’s early years. The figures are delicately illuminated by moonlight against a landscape backdrop. This was the period when the artist was beginning to make a name for himself in his region, just before his departure for Rome. During this time, Guercino prepared his commissions with “bozzettoni,” or rough drafts created before the final refinement. Several of these have survived to this day, such as Saint Sebastian Rescued by Two Angels (private collection and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge) and The Vision of Saint Jerome (private collection and the Louvre). Nicholas Turner, one of the leading experts on Guercino, lists the painting in his catalog raisonné *The Paintings of Guercino*. A Revised and Expanded Catalogue Raisonné, published in 2017, under number 69.I. He lists about fifteen similar cases in his monograph on the artist and refers to them as “trial versions.” A native of Cento, a village located between Bologna and Ferrara, Guercino was self-taught, learning by observing the altarpieces that Ludovico Carracci, Carlo Bononi, and Scarcellino had left in his hometown. From them, he absorbed a dynamic quality and great fluidity of execution, as well as a Venetian-style use of light, which was further refined during his stay in Venice in 1618, where he studied the works of Titian and Jacopo Bassano in particular. In Bologna, after 1609, he joined the circle of Ludovico Carracci and the students of Annibale, and for ten years produced small-scale works for art collectors and his first altarpieces.Pope Gregory XV summoned him to Rome in 1621, where he made a name for himself with very large-scale religious and mythological works and the fresco of Aurora at the Ludovisi Casino. At the time our painting was created, 1618–1620, the artist still possessed a fresh vision, a poetic sensibility, and great ambition—namely, to gain recognition at the papal court. The work reflects both his artistic evolution