PR 90

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 344; Larghezza: 221

olio su tela

GENOVA E GUERCINO. DIPINTI E DISEGNI DELLE CIVICHE COLLEZIONI - GENOVA - 1992

According to Malvasia, the painting was intended for the Cathedral of Cento, but it never reached its destination, remaining in Guercino's house until his death. The story of the work, first recognised by Nefta Grimaldi (1957, fig. 143) in the painting in Palazzo Rosso, but absent from any other source after the Bolognese biographer, remained obscure until 2017, when, thanks to a careful re-reading of the painter's exceptional account book and other archival documents, Piero Boccardo very convincingly proposed that the painting now preserved in Palazzo Rosso should be recognised as the “painting of St Bartholomew” mentioned in the account book (Boccardo in The Burlington Magazine, June 2017, pp. 450-452). The work, in fact, paid for by Guercino between 1660 and 1661, a sum commensurate with the size and complexity of an altarpiece, had never been identified before. The presence of the infant St. John the Baptist in the painting of St. Bartholomew, as described in the two sheets attached to the account book and dedicated exclusively to this work, made the scholar realise that it could not be a composition on the theme of the saint's life. Finally, the work was commissioned and paid for by Sebastiano Fabri, a member of a wealthy family of landowners who held the patronage of the chapel dedicated to St. Bartholomew in the Collegiate Church of San Biagio in Cento. Therefore, while it is highly credible that the original destination of the work was the Fabri altar, the fact that the altarpiece was never installed, despite being paid for, and remained in the artist's house remains unexplained. It was purchased directly from the painter's heirs in 1684 for 3398 lire by Gio. Francesco I Brignole-Sale to be placed in Palazzo Rosso, where it can still be admired today. Two preparatory drawings are known to exist for the canvas: one in pen and ink, relating to the figure of St. Bartholomew, preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. No. 1963 63. 67); the other, in red pencil, pertaining to the Koening-Fachsenfeld collection (inv. No. Ii/62), now deposited at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, referring to the drapery of St John the Evangelist's robe. The painting depicts the Madonna holding the Baby Jesus, with Saint John at her feet. Near them are John the Evangelist and Saint Bartholomew, with two cherubs at the top right.