Giovanni Francesco BARBIERI, known as the GUERCHIN (Cento, 1591 - Bologna, 1666) The dead Christ mourned by two angels Canvas Without frame The dead Christ mourned by two angels, canvas, by G. F. Barbieri, called le Guerchin 14.37 x 18.70 in. 36.5 x 47.5 cm Provenance: Acquired by the owner's father in the 1960s from a château in Thiviers in the Dordogne; Private collection, South-West France Bibliography: Article in the Sud-Ouest newspaper, edition of 27 November 1965, as Caravaggio (fig.1) Our unpublished painting should be compared with the famous and marvellous small copper in the National Gallery in London, of the same dimensions (inv. NG22, Holwell Carr bequest, 1831), dated c. 16181, i.e. on the artist's return from Venice and before his departure for Rome. Several "bozzettoni", or preparatory versions, often on canvas, executed by Guerchin before the final work on copper, have come down to us, such as Saint Sebastian Rescued by Two Angels (version on canvas in private collection and version on copper in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), or The Vision of Saint Jerome (version on canvas in private collection and version on copper in the Louvre). Our painting is part of the same approach taken by the artist when he was young, and the canvas medium was more suited to this first draft, before being finalised on copper. Nicholas Turner, in his monograph on the artist, calls them "trial versions "2. There are a few variations between the two versions of this deploration of Christ, notably in the shape of the tree stump on the left and the white drapery covering the fingers of the left hand of the angel on the right, whereas it is placed above them in the London version. We also note the absence of wings on the two angels in our version, but this is a repentance. As can be seen with the naked eye in low-angled light, and also confirmed by infra-red X-rays, they were initially present, then probably covered by the painter himself. In the London painting, the tunic in the centre is purple and violet, while ours is vermilion, the tunic of the angel in London is blue-violet, while ours is greyer, mixed with green. Generally speaking, our painting can be described as closer to Caravaggio, with its pronounced chiaroscuro and dramatic intensity. The Copper in the National Gallery, on the other hand, is more in the vein of Ludovico Carracci, with its refinement, warm, soft colours and more advanced finish. These are the usual variations, imposed by the difference in the support on which the brush clings in a different way. Originally from Cento, a town halfway between Ferrara and Bologna, Guerchino taught himself by observing the altar paintings left in his native town by Ludovico Carracci, Carlo Bononi and Scarcellino. He retained their dynamism and great fluidity of execution, a luminism of Venetian origin, which was reinforced by his stay in Venice in 1618, where he studied Titian and Jacopo Bassano in particular. In Bologna after 1609, he joined the circle of Ludovico Carracci and Annibale's pupils, and for ten years produced his most poetic small paintings. Pope Gregory XV called him to Rome in 1621, where he made his mark with huge altarpieces and the Aurora fresco in the Casino Ludovisi. The attribution to Guerchin had been confirmed by Denis Mahon, after examination of the painting, by oral notice to the owner. We would like to thank Nicholas Turner for confirming the authenticity of this painting based on a digital photograph, in an email dated 10 December 2024. 1. Nicholas Turner, The Paintings of Guercino. A Revised and Expanded Catalogue raisonné, Rome, Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017, p.324, no. 66. He then noted, following an intuition of Denis Mahon, that there are too many mentions of this subject in the seventeenth century not to imagine that there was another autograph replica in addition to the London painting. 2. Op. cit. pp. 211-223. There are also three study drawings for the body of Christ in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. The London painting was engraved by Nicolas Pitau the Elder and published by Theodor van Merlen II in 1668. Giovanni Francesco BARBIERI, known as the GUERCHIN (Cento, 1591 - Bologna, 1666) 36.5 x 47.5 cm Our unpublished painting should be compared with the famous and marvellous small copper in the National Gallery in London, of the same dimensions (inv. NG22, Holwell Carr bequest, 1831), dated around 16181, i.e. on the artist's return from Venice and before his departure for Rome. Several "bozzettoni", or preparatory versions, often on canvas, executed by Guerchin before the final work on copper, have come down to us, such as Saint Sebastian Rescued by Two Angels (version on canvas in private collection and version on copper in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), or The Vision of Saint Jerome (version on canvas in private collection and version on copper in the Louvre). Our painting is part of the same approach taken by the artist when he was young, and the canvas medium was more suited to this first draft, before being finalised on copper. Nicholas Turner, in his monograph on the artist, calls them "trial versions "2. There are a few variations between the two versions of this deploration of Christ, notably in the shape of the tree stump on the left and the white drapery covering the fingers of the left hand of the angel on the right, whereas it is placed above them in the London version. We also note the absence of wings on the two angels in our version, but this is a repentance. As can be seen with the naked eye in low-angled light, and also confirmed by infra-red X-rays, they were initially present, then probably covered by the painter himself. In the London painting, the tunic in the centre is purple and violet, while ours is vermilion, the tunic of the angel in London is blue-violet, while ours is greyer, mixed with green. Generally speaking, our painting can be described as closer to Caravaggio, with its pronounced chiaroscuro and dramatic intensity. The Copper in the National Gallery, on the other hand, is more in the vein of Ludovico Carracci, with its refinement, warm, soft colours and more advanced finish. These are the usual variations, imposed by the difference in support, on which the brush clings in a different way. Originally from Cento, a town halfway between Ferrara and Bologna, Guerchino taught himself by observing the altar paintings left in his native town by Ludovico Carracci, Carlo Bononi and Scarcellino. He retained their dynamism and great fluidity of execution, a luminism of Venetian origin, which was reinforced by his stay in Venice in 1618, where he studied Titian and Jacopo Bassano in particular. In Bologna after 1609, he joined the circle of Ludovico Carracci and Annibale's pupils, and for ten years produced his most poetic small paintings. Pope Gregory XV called him to Rome in 1621, where he made his mark with huge altarpieces and the Aurora fresco in the Casino Ludovisi. The attribution to Guerchin had been confirmed by Denis Mahon, after examining the painting, by oral notice to the owner. We would like to thank Nicholas Turner for confirming the authenticity of this painting based on a digital photograph, in an email dated 10 December 2024. 1. Nicholas Turner, The Paintings of Guercino. A Revised and Expanded Catalogue raisonné, Rome, Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2017, p.324, no. 66. He then noted, following an intuition of Denis Mahon, that there are too many mentions of this subject in the seventeenth century not to imagine that there was another autograph replica in addition to the London painting. 2. Op. cit. pp. 211-223. There are also three study drawings for the body of Christ in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. The London painting was engraved by Nicolas Pitau the Elder and published by Theodor van Merlen II in 1668.