Live Auction 2657Old Master Paintings Part II
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)
Lot 257 PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

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

Amnon and Tamar

Closed26 January 2012

Price Realised

USD 266,500

Considering selling a similar item?

Discover its value with a complimentary estimate from our specialists.

More Information

How to sell

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)
Amnon and Tamar
oil on canvas
43¼ x 60 7/8 in. (109.8 x 154.5 cm.)

Commissioned by Aurelio Zanoletti of Reggio, but sold by the artist on 28 January 1650 to Girolamo Bavoso or Bavosi, who sent the picture to Venice (see note below).
Presumably the Guercino of this subject sold by Pierre Berton, French agent in Rome, to William Fauquier in 1742 (see note below).
Private collection, Ireland.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 18 December 1980, lot 14.
with Wildenstein, New York.
Frederick W. Field, Greenacres, Beverly Hills; Christie's, London, 5 July 1991, lot 19.
with Sarina Tang Fine Art Gallery, New York, from whom acquired by the present owner in 1993.

Specialist note

Malvasia records among Guercino's works of 1649 'Un Gioseffo fuggitivo dalla moglie di Putifar al Sig. Aurelio Zanoletti; & al medemoun quadro con Amnone, quando discaccia la violata Tamar. Questo quadro fù ceduto al Sig. Girolamo Bavosi, che l'inviò a Venetia con un altro di Apollo di Dafne' -- Sir Denis Mahon was the first to recognize, before the 1980 sale, that this reference must relate to the present picture. Ghelfi notes that this is the first treatment of the subject by Guercino (loc. cit.). An entry of 28 January 1649 in Guercino's Libro dei conti records receipt of payment from Bavosi. Another entry of 10 March 1649 refers to the later painting of this Old Testament subject by Guercino, which hangs with its pendant Joseph and Potiphar's wife, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.