Giovanni
Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (1591–
1666), was arguably the most interesting and
diverse draftsman of the Italian Baroque era, a
natural virtuoso who created brilliant drawings in a
broad range of media. The Morgan Library &
Museum owns more than thirty-five works by the
artist, and these are the subject of a focused
exhibition, supplemented by a pair of loans from
New York private collections. Guercino: Virtuoso
Draftsman opens at the Morgan October 4, 2019
and continues through February 2, 2020.
Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman will include sheets from all moments of the artist’s career. His
early awareness of the work of the Carracci in Bologna is documented by figures drawn
from everyday life, as well as brilliant caricatures; two drawings for Guercino’s own drawing
manual are further testament to his interest in questions of academic practice. Following his
career, a range of preparatory drawings includes studies made in connection with his
earliest altarpieces in addition to his mature masterpieces, including multiple studies for
several projects, allowing the visitor to see Guercino’s mind at work as he reconsidered his
ideas. The Morgan’s holdings also include studies for engravings as well as highly finished
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Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino (1591–
1666), Vision of St. Philip Neri, 1646–47, pen and brown
ink, with brown wash. The Morgan Library & Museum, gift
of János Scholz, 1977.49.
landscape and figure drawings that were independent
works. While some of the
Morgan’s Guercino drawings are well known, they
have never been exhibited or published as a group
before, and the selection on view in the exhibition will
include a number of new acquisitions.
The majority of Guercino’s drawings were preparatory
studies for paintings, and his practice was typical for
seventeenth-century Italy. From the beginning of his
career, Guercino produced not only altarpieces, but also
cabinet pictures—of sacred and secular subject
matter— in equal numbers. A work such as his
Madonna del Carmine and saints, connected with an
altarpiece commission, is a characteristic early drawing.
Guercino’s distinctively energetic pen lines are already
evident, and the multiple layers of wash indicate that the
dramatic chiaroscuro characterizing his early paintings
was also an element of his thinking as he worked out
the composition in drawing.
Guercino possessed extraordinary talents when it came to the manipulation of materials. The
furious vitality of his pen work is Guercino’s most recognizable stylistic trait, perhaps best seen
in looping, calligraphic pen lines that do not depict drapery folds so much as they convey a
sense of fluttering cloth. After this energetic sketching with the pen, he would typically take up a
brush, clarifying a design or even seeming to sculpt forms with multiple layers of wash—
sometimes using thin, fluid, transparent washes, and other times thick, more opaque washes.
Later in his career, he more often made use of red chalk, creating luminous, delicate studies;
occasionally, he would combine pen, wash, and chalk in highly finished drawings that were
complete works in their own right.
Guercino’s fame grew throughout the later decades of his career. Among the drawings at the
Morgan are studies for altarpieces sent farther afield, to Turin and Verona. He never wanted for
work: he continued to receive commissions from the popes and cardinals in Rome and also
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino
(1591–1666), The Bird-Catcher, ca. 1625-32, pen
and brown ink on paper. Purchased 1979.8.
Photography by Steven H. Crossot, 2014.
made paintings for a host of royal patrons. Drawing, however, remained the basic operative
element of Guercino’s artistic output. It is of little surprise that an artist so perpetually engaged
in the exploration of the world through drawing has left behind a body of work that continues to
delight and fascinate viewers today.
“Guercino was one of the most brilliant draftsman in Baroque Italy, a natural virtuoso whose
genius is equally clear in the quickest pen sketch and in the most refined chalk drawing,” said
Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “I am delighted that audiences will be
able to see his talents first hand and explore the Morgan Library & Museum’s unparalleled
holdings of Guercino’s work in this exhibition.”
Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue produced in association with Paul Holberton
Publishing. An introductory essay and catalogue entries by John Marciari, Charles W.
Engelhard Curator and Department Head of Prints and Drawings, explore Guercino’s unique
stylistic qualities and provide a closer look at the over thirty-five works by the Italian draftsman in
the Morgan’s collection. The volume also includes a foreword by Colin B. Bailey, Director of the
Morgan Library & Museum.