Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino (1591-1666) Biography
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, nicknamed Guercino (Cento, 2 February 1591 – Bologna, 22 December 1666), was an Italian painter. Having shown a particular talent for drawing since childhood, he was sent by his father to learn the trade in Bastia and then in Bologna, where he was able to study the works of the Carraccis. His first manner betrays a naturalism free from academicism and characterized by a strong luministic imprint (what would later become the famous 'Guercinesque stain'). From 1612 he was entrusted with the first important commissions: thanks to the advice of Ludovico Carracci, Archbishop Alessandro Ludovisi (the future Pope Gregory XV) purchased some of his works and Guercino decided to found his own painting school in Cento (1617). In 1618 he was in Venice and was able to admire the works of Titian and Jacopo Bassano, from whose colorism he drew inspiration for the "Vestition of Saint William of Aquitaine" (Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna) and the "Saint Francis in Ecstasy with Saint Benedict and a angel" (Louvre), both from 1620. From 1621 to 1623 he was in Rome, where he created the decorations of the Casino Ludovisi (the Dawn and the Fame) and the large altarpiece of the Burial of Saint Petronilla (7 x 4 m) for Saint Pietro (now in the Capitoline Museums). Upon the death of Pope Gregory XV he leaves Rome and returns to Cento. In Piacenza he completed the frescoes in the dome of the Cathedral (1626), left unfinished by Morazzone, and painted Christ appearing to the Madonna (1628), which marked the beginning of a new season of Baroque classicism. Upon Guido Reni's death, no longer having to fear competition, he moved from Cento to Bologna (1642), where he painted "The Vision of Saint Bruno" (1647) and Saint John the Baptist Preaching (1654). Having recovered from a heart attack in 1661, he died five years later (1666).
