Live Auction 1961Old Master And 19th Century Drawings
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)
Lot 31

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)

Saint Francis Xavier holding a lily

Closed24 January 2008

Price Realised

USD 11,250

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Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)
Saint Francis Xavier holding a lily
black chalk, heightened with white, on buff paper
10¼ x 7¼ in. (262 x 184 mm.)

With T. Agnew and Sons, London.
With C. Powney, London, 1969.

Specialist note

The attribution to Guercino was confirmed by Denis Mahon in a letter to the present owner dated 7 December 1970. The drawing was possibly made in preparation for a picture of Saint Francis Xavier. Mahon dates the drawing to circa 1653, the year that Guercino received the equivalent of 60 ducats from the Principe di Massa for a mezza figura di San Francesco Saverio. Upon its completion, the work was sent to Palermo but is now untraced (B. Ghelfi, Il libro dei conti del Guercino 1629-1666, Bologna, 1997, p. 162, no. 473).