Lotto No. 525


Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino


Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino - Dipinti antichi

(Cento 1591–1666 Bologna)
Saint Peter,
oil on canvas, 107 x 88 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European Collection

Literature:
B. Ghelfi (ed.), Il Libro dei Conti del Guercino, 1629–1666, Venice 1997,
p. 139, no. 389

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original and for his help in cataloguing.

The present work is the ‘mezza figura del San Pietro Apostolo’ for which Francesco Guiduzzi paid 60 ducats, otherwise 75 scudi, on 4 April 1648, Guercino’s standard price for a canvas of this format (see literature). Guiduzzi was the agent of an anonymous patron, a certain ‘Gentiluomo Venetiano,’ whose identity remains unknown. Camillo Manzitti has suggested that the anonymous Venetian client who ordered the Saint Peter, half length, may have been the Abbate Panico who in 1644 had paid for the Saint Paul, half length, now in the Mainetti collection, Rome (see L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome 1988, p. 208), since the size of the two canvases is roughly the same. However, in Turner´s opinion the two canvases do not seem to have been en suite because Saint Paul is both seated and placed further back in space than the standing Saint Peter in the present painting and the two figures do not balance each other.

The style of the present painting fits Guercino’s mid-Bolognese period (1642–66) exactly, as shown by the remarkable similarity, in reverse, to his half-length oval canvas of Saint Joseph in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (see N. Turner, The paintings of Guercino, Rome 2017, p. 652, no. 363). The similarity in pose to the Saint Peter is striking: the upward tilt of the head, with its similar flattish face and beard, the rapturous gaze, the slight turn of the shoulders into the picture space and a hand devoutly placed flat against the chest.

In the present Saint Peter, the vibrant contrast between ultramarine blue and orange-brown in the saint’s drapery is one of the picture’s strongest features. Another version of the Saint Peter, half-length and nearly identical in size (113 x 92.5 cm), was on the Paris art market in 1991, as attributed to Guercino, where it was acquired by Guy and Héléna Motais de Narbonne (see sale, Ader - Tajan, Paris, 18 December 1991, lot 11). In 2010 it was included, as by Guercino, in an exhibition at the Louvre (see S. Loire, in: Musée du Louvre. La collection Motais de Narbonne: Tableaux français et italiens des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, exhibition catalogue, ed. by S. Loire/H. Loyrette, Paris 2010, no. 39, as by Guercino). The rediscovery of the present picture raised the problem of how to interpret the presence of so many duplicate versions in Guercino’s painted work. The use of expensive ultramarine in Saint Peter’s shirt in both pictures is puzzling, and Turner’s explanation is that the Motais de Narbonne version came into being as a trial version for the present picture but was subsequently reworked in the studio. Evidence that the Motais de Narbonne picture might have originated as a trial version includes the saint’s left hand, in which he holds his key, that is not fully realized; another instance of this ‘leaving off’ is seen in the lack of highlights in the curls of the saint’s hair, which are found in the present version.

30.04.2019 - 17:00

Prezzo realizzato: **
EUR 125.300,-
Stima:
EUR 30.000,- a EUR 50.000,-

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino


(Cento 1591–1666 Bologna)
Saint Peter,
oil on canvas, 107 x 88 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European Collection

Literature:
B. Ghelfi (ed.), Il Libro dei Conti del Guercino, 1629–1666, Venice 1997,
p. 139, no. 389

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original and for his help in cataloguing.

The present work is the ‘mezza figura del San Pietro Apostolo’ for which Francesco Guiduzzi paid 60 ducats, otherwise 75 scudi, on 4 April 1648, Guercino’s standard price for a canvas of this format (see literature). Guiduzzi was the agent of an anonymous patron, a certain ‘Gentiluomo Venetiano,’ whose identity remains unknown. Camillo Manzitti has suggested that the anonymous Venetian client who ordered the Saint Peter, half length, may have been the Abbate Panico who in 1644 had paid for the Saint Paul, half length, now in the Mainetti collection, Rome (see L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome 1988, p. 208), since the size of the two canvases is roughly the same. However, in Turner´s opinion the two canvases do not seem to have been en suite because Saint Paul is both seated and placed further back in space than the standing Saint Peter in the present painting and the two figures do not balance each other.

The style of the present painting fits Guercino’s mid-Bolognese period (1642–66) exactly, as shown by the remarkable similarity, in reverse, to his half-length oval canvas of Saint Joseph in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (see N. Turner, The paintings of Guercino, Rome 2017, p. 652, no. 363). The similarity in pose to the Saint Peter is striking: the upward tilt of the head, with its similar flattish face and beard, the rapturous gaze, the slight turn of the shoulders into the picture space and a hand devoutly placed flat against the chest.

In the present Saint Peter, the vibrant contrast between ultramarine blue and orange-brown in the saint’s drapery is one of the picture’s strongest features. Another version of the Saint Peter, half-length and nearly identical in size (113 x 92.5 cm), was on the Paris art market in 1991, as attributed to Guercino, where it was acquired by Guy and Héléna Motais de Narbonne (see sale, Ader - Tajan, Paris, 18 December 1991, lot 11). In 2010 it was included, as by Guercino, in an exhibition at the Louvre (see S. Loire, in: Musée du Louvre. La collection Motais de Narbonne: Tableaux français et italiens des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, exhibition catalogue, ed. by S. Loire/H. Loyrette, Paris 2010, no. 39, as by Guercino). The rediscovery of the present picture raised the problem of how to interpret the presence of so many duplicate versions in Guercino’s painted work. The use of expensive ultramarine in Saint Peter’s shirt in both pictures is puzzling, and Turner’s explanation is that the Motais de Narbonne version came into being as a trial version for the present picture but was subsequently reworked in the studio. Evidence that the Motais de Narbonne picture might have originated as a trial version includes the saint’s left hand, in which he holds his key, that is not fully realized; another instance of this ‘leaving off’ is seen in the lack of highlights in the curls of the saint’s hair, which are found in the present version.


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Asta: Dipinti antichi
Tipo d'asta: Asta in sala
Data: 30.04.2019 - 17:00
Luogo dell'asta: Wien | Palais Dorotheum
Esposizione: 20.04. - 30.04.2019


** Prezzo d'acquisto comprensivo di tassa di vendita e IVA

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