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

While she is reading a book, a woman is interrupted by a child who tries to get her attention in order to show her something in his raised left hand. The scene might depict the Virgin and Child; Nicholas Turner has suggested that it could be a prolepsis for Christ's Passion as the object in the Child's hand looks like a bun, perhaps acting as a symbol of the Virgin's heart, which at Christ's death was to be transfixed by the 'Seven Sorrows'. The swirling outlines, combined with more precise hatching, dots and freely applied wash, are highly characteristic for Guercino. These features can also be found in a drawing showing The Assassination of Amnon at the Feast of Absolom and Alexander the Great, both in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle (N. Turner and C. Plazzotta, Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, London 1991, nos. 72 and 80, ill.). A copy after this drawing was sold at Sotheby's, London, 13 December 2001, lot 127.

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing and for confirming the attribution to Guercino on the basis of a digital photograph.