GUERCINO (GiovanniFrancescoBarbieri)
1591-1666
20 Study of a Seated Young Man
Oiled black chalk and white chalk heightening; H: 52.2
cm (22^9 /i6 in.); W: 42.7 cm (i6^3 / 4 in.)
89.03.52
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: Hugh Blaker, London; Sir Colin Ander-
son, London; Lady Anderson, London (sale, Christie's,
London, December 9, 1986, lot 48); art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Selected Paint-
ings, Drawings and Sculpture from the Collection of the Late
Hugh Blaker, Leicester Galleries, London, March 1948,
no. 46; European Drawings, Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox,
Ltd., London, November-December 1988, no. 26;
Guercino, Master Draftsman: Works from North American
Collections, Harvard University Art Museums, Cam-
bridge, Mass., February-March 1991, no. 63 (catalogue
by D. M. Stone); Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, II Guercino,
1591-1666: Dipinti e disegni, Museo Civico Archeolo-
gico, Bologna, September-November 1991, no. 207
(catalogue by D. Mahon).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
THIS DRAWING WAS ASSOCIATED BY D. MAHON
(Christie's 1986) with a group of seven male nude studies
of similar technique that are firmly dated by him in all
but one case to I6I9-2O.^1 He also pointed out that the
model for the Getty drawing is the same as that used for
another sheet in this group (Genoa, Palazzo Rosso inv.
1702). The broad chiaroscuro and monumental form
make the earlier erroneous attribution to Piazzetta
(Leicester Galleries 1948) understandable and lend fur-
ther support to Mahon's suggestion that Piazzetta may
have drawn inspiration from drawings of this kind.^21. D. Mahon, // Guercino: Disegni, exh. cat. (Palazzo
dellArchiginnasio, Bologna, 1968), nos. 247-53.
2. Ibid., p. 220.60 ITALIAN SCHOOL • GUERCINO