(1591-1666) Saint John the Baptist, c. 1660, red chalk on laid paper, 29,5 x 21,8 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Guercino dealt with Saint John the Baptist in several paintings and drawings which he executed between 1641-44 and in his late work between 1650 and 1661. The present drawing is not related to any of the executed paintings but shows Saint John the Baptist beardless and with a cape of camel‘s hair and a cross-staff before a background which is faintly depicted. Similar to an earlier painting from 1644 in Bologna (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Salerno 1988, No. 217) and in two paintings in Rome (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Salerno 1988, No. 249 and No. 351) the saint is presented close-up in three-quarter length with his face beardless and looking younger than in the later versions. The paintings from the 1650s show the full-length figure of Saint John in a landscape whose body is turned towards the onlooker in frontal view and effectively set in scene through a dramatic light (comp. Salerno 1988, Nos. 268, 289, 309 and 340). A comparable drawing ascribed to the late work of the artist with the saint being depicted beardless and as a young boy is preserved in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (Inv. Nr. H 89). Based on stylistic criteria and on the usage of red chalk the present study can be dated to the late work of Guercino.

The attribution of the present drawing to Guercino and its dating to the artist’s late work was suggested by Dr. Nicholas Turner on the basis of a photograph.

Literature: Luigi Salerno, I Dipinti del Guercino, Rome 1988, Cat. Nos. 217, 268, 289, 309, 340, 349, 351; Carel van Tuyll van Serooskerken, Guercino (1591-1666): Drawings from Dutch Collections, Exh. Cat. Teylers Museum, Haarlem 1991, Cat. 78, p. 176.