Antique for
Modern Education
Guercino
The painting acquisition:
The painting was originally acquired as Italian School of the baroque period.
Today owner admired the maternal love in it and did not care of the painter neither the economic value of the artwork.
Only later technical studies and artistic considerations by internationally recognized and extremely professional and serious English and Belgian experts, Professor Nicholas Turner and Thierry Radelet, assigned the painting to the young Guercino.
An intuition by the Italian Professor Negro was the triggering point of the researches.
Other experts, under discussion and ‘suffering from lack of values’, were kept apart from this studies which needed to asses the truth and not economic value.
Guercino’s newly discovered painting by Professor Nicholas Turner, 19 July 2020:
The figure group of the Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist—not the landscape nor the roundel format—was previously known from Guercino’s two upright oil sketches of the subject painted in brown monochrome (Figs. 2 and 3), one in the Galleria Pallavicini, Rome,[i] and the other in the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation (now on deposit at the Museum of Fine Arts), Houston.[ii] The newly-discovered picture represents the hitherto lost final stage in the evolution of the composition, which went through many stages. Besides the two monochrome sketches, five preparatory drawings have also survived, which shed interesting light on the early stages of the compositional process. Since these works have been dated c. 1615–16, this must also be the date of the present picture. The identity of the patron for whom the roundel was commissioned remains unknown, though he was probably a resident of Guercino’s native Cento, or a town close by.
Guercino was relatively new to oil painting at the outset of his career. In 1616, when he painted the present picture, he was still in his mid-twenties. His inexperience may be partly explained by the fact that the great majority of his earliest work is large-scale mural decorations executed in water soluble tempera—not oil paint.
Guercino’s preparatory drawings for the picture:
The five surviving preparatory drawings allow Guercino’s thoughts on the evolution of the composition to be followed in detail. The earliest is a study in the Print Room at Windsor Castle, showing the Virgin watching over the two children as they are about to embrace (Fig. 4).[i] The emotional reunion between the two cousins was occasioned by the Christ Child’s return to Galilee from Egypt. As the Christ Child advances to greet St John, he turns his back towards the viewer in a pose that anticipates, in reverse, that of the seated St John the Baptist in the present picture.
The central action and the arrangement of the figures were altered in two later studies, both square in format. One is in the Albertina, Vienna (Fig. 5),[ii] and the other in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Fig. 6).[iii]
Guercino’s painting for Youngster’s education:
The painting, today valued around 500KEur and belonging to a private collector, is now available, upon request, for exhibitions and educational initiatives around the globe.
The characteristics of this artwork, describing the maternal love of a real family, part of the period of Poesia e Sentimento of the painter, makes it a unique example for teaching children and youngsters the values to be rediscovered in today modern world.
For such initiatives, to be discussed and approved by today owner, the painting is available for loan free of charge.
For such initiatives, to be discussed and approved by today owner, the painting is available for loan free of charge.
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Antique Paintings for Modern Education
Time Line
Guercino creates the painting Virgin and Child
with the Infant St John the Baptist for an unknown client.
The painting gets cut and reconstructed into
a round shape accordingly to the client taste.
The painting is acquired by the present owner
without knowing the author, but as Scuola Emiliana.
In July Professor Nicholas Turner intuition and later studies discover that the painting is a Guercino early artwork, of the period of Poesia e Sentimento.
Tests conducted by Thierry Radelet give evidence of Nicholas Turner intuition and confirm, together with Professor Turner,
the author.
The painting is available for exhibitions and educational projects dedicated to youngsters education around the world.
Exibition at Filmoor Hutte Mountain Base
Location associated to Alpenvereins, Tirol, Austria, 2350 m.
Visit: Filmoor Hutte
The painting is moved from Austria to Italy.
Opening of the exhibition in Cavalese, TN, Italy
at the ancient Canonica.
Visit: Il Guercino ritornato
Gallery
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