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

This swiftly drawn sheet is an early study for Guercino's painting of 1645 showing Hercules with his lion skin, in the Museo Storico della Caccia e del Territorio di Cerreto Guidi (N. Turner, The Paintings of Guercino, Rome, 2017, no. 316, ill.). Three other drawings related to the picture are known: one in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (inv. NMH 1124/1863) and two retouched counterproofs in the Royal Collection, Windsor (inv. RCIN 903026 and 903100; see D. Mahon and N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge, 1989, nos. 717-718, ill.).
We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing and for confirming the attribution to Guercino from a photograph.