Guercino sites in Bologna and Cento

Born in Cento in 1591, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri known as Il Guercino was one of the most celebrated painters of his time. From 1642 he lived in Bologna. His immense fame is evidenced by the visit Queen Christina of Sweden made to him in 1655: the sovereign asked the painter if she could touch his hand, “which had worked marvels.”

Guercino's works in the area trace fascinating itineraries among churches, streets and museums.

National Picture Gallery of Bologna

To Guercino, whose 13 works it preserves, the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna has dedicated the main room of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century section.

Pivotal points in the production of the master from Cento are the Vestizione di San Guglielmo (1620), an altarpiece of solemn monumentality, and the imposing San Bruno in adorazione della Madonna in gloria (1647), a masterpiece of his maturity that is the result of a probable collaboration with his brother Paolo Antonio Barbieri, a still-life painter.

"Hercules and Antaeus" - Palazzo Sampieri Talon 

In October 1631, Astorre Sampieri paid 100 scudi to Guercino for the creation of the Hercules wrestling with Antaeus: foreshortened from below, the two figures towered over the ceiling of a ground-floor room. According to Carlo Cesare Malvasia, the work, executed dry, fully highlighted Guercino's “excellence of drawing.” In the halls of the palace, Barbieri's painting compared directly with the paintings that the Carracci had dedicated nearly forty years earlier to the mythological hero.

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"Madonna of the Rose with the Child" - Palazzo Pepoli Museum of the History of Bologna 

Palazzo Pepoli is home to the Museum of the History of Bologna, dedicated to the culture and transformations of the city over the centuries. In the narrative from Etruscan origins to the present day, a room dedicated to the Felsina painter could not be missing, with which to illustrate the prolific era of the Accademia del Naturale. It was in this school that Giovan Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino was trained. At the Museum of the History of Bologna, it is possible to admire his Madonna of the Rose with Child, a sort of “portable fresco,” proof of bravura that is striking because of the painter's young age, 25 at the time.

©Elettra Bastoni, Palazzo Pepoli. Museo della Storia di Bologna

Guercino's fortunes in the Napoleonic age - Museo Civico d’Arte Industriale e Galleria Davia Bargellini

In 1808 Jacopo Alessandro Calvi gave to the presses the Notizie della vita di Guercino (News of Guercino's life), a text that can be considered the “first modern biography” of the master from Cento, celebrated for his unmistakable manner, marked by a vivid naturalism and a “soft and suave coloring.”  Such aspects proved to be a source of admiration not only for Calvi the art writer, but also for Calvi the painter, as attested by the Beata Vergine Addolorata at the Davia Bargellini Museum, executed around 1804, thus in close proximity to the writing of the biographical volume.

©Museo Davia Bargellini 

From Aldrovandi to Guercino: nature of the truth - Museo di Palazzo Poggi, Bologna

The Ulisse Aldrovandi Trail at the Museum of Palazzo Poggi recounts the figure of the Bolognese scientist who, in the 1500s, began to study nature from life and have it reproduced by artists and engravers in images from which his contemporary painters did not hesitate to draw inspiration. It is in this groove that the painting of Guercino (1591-1666), an artist capable of observing the nature in front of him and transposing it without idealizing it onto canvas, also entered.

Allestimento della Sala “Casa, studio e museo” Museo di Palazzo Poggi  ©Sistema Museale di Ateneo

"Saint Cecilia" - Pinacoteca Civica Domenico Inzaghi, Budrio (BO)

Among the treasures preserved at the Inzaghi Art Gallery, it is possible to take a close look at Guercino's painterly temperament and fame. The half-figure portrayals of the saints “Cecilia” and “Agnese” replicate and vary the celebrated models of Barbieri and his workshop. The collection also includes valuable drawings by the painter, who devoted great energies to graphic design and the various expressive results of his tools, from pen to charcoal to sanguine.

Santa Cecilia ©Pinacoteca Civica Domenico Inzaghi

"Risen Christ appearing to Mary" - Pinacoteca Il Guercino, Cento (FE)

Even in his years away from Cento, Guercino maintained a very intense connection with the town. The churches, palaces and territory of Cento are dotted with the works of the painter and his school. The Pinacoteca Civica makes it possible to reread Barbieri's painting from his models (particularly Ludovico Carracci), and to reconstruct the artist's path through some absolute masterpieces, such as the "Madonna with Blessing Child" and the "Risen Christ Appearing to Mary",admired by Velázquez and Goethe.