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https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=B5B4CF5C4EECCA929C7CD21E3B63071527E1BE935421D136C33F8CE0929B3196&s=24247294&se=1224857343&v=0&f=1925.1188_o2.jpg

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Nov 20, 2012

Venus and Cupid in a Chariot

1615–17

Guercino

(Italian, 1591–1666)

Italy, Bologna

Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over red chalk

Support: Cream(3) laid paper

Sheet: 25.5 x 39.4 cm (10 1/16 x 15 1/2 in.)

Dudley P. Allen Fund 1925.1188

Location

not on view

Did you know?

Two miniscule female forms appear at the bottom edge of the sheet and may pertain to an earlier idea for the composition or to one of many other compositions Guercino conceived for the commission.

Description

Giovanni Francesco Barbiere, called Guercino, was a prolific draftsman who used drawing not only to prepare for his many painting commissions but also to record and explore his ideas for future use. This preparatory drawing, made early in his career, reflects Guercino's nonlinear preparatory process and his simultaneous work on different compositions. It relates in format to the painted decoration at the Casa Pannini in his native town of Cento, but it features Venus instead of Diana as in the finished fresco. Guercino's combination of rapid and sure pen lines with ink wash, applied with expert variegation to create deep shadows and bright highlights, is a paradigm of the artist's exuberant high Baroque style.

Inscriptions

Inscription

upper right, in brown ink: 44 .

Provenance

?-1925

(P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, England)

December 8, 1925

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Washburn, Gordon Bailey, and Agnes Mongan. Master Drawings, Selected from the Museums and Private Collections of America; January, 1935, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. [Buffalo, N.Y.]: [F.W. Burow], 1935. Mentioned and reproduced: cat. no. 38

Kennedy, Ruth Wedgwood. Italian Drawing, 1330-1780, Smith College Museum of Art. [Northampton, MA.]: [Press-work by A. Wilson], 1941. Mentioned: cat. no. 42

Tietze, Hans. European Master Drawings in the United States. New York: J.J. Augustin, 1947. Mentioned: p. 114, n. 57; Reproduced: p. 115

Worcester Art Museum. Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of Europe During the XVIth-XVIIth Centuries. April 11 to May 16, 1948. Mentioned: cat. no. 45

Mongan, Agnes. One Hundred Master Drawings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949. Mentioned: p. 72; Reproduced: p. 73

Detroit Institute of Arts. Loan Exhibition of Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums: Detroit Institute of Arts, June 1-September 15, 1950. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1950. Mentioned: cat. no. 21

Marangoni, Matteo. Guercino. Milano: Aldo Martello, 1959. Mentioned: p. 11, n. 8; Reproduced: n. 8

Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. "Old and Modern Drawings: A Drawing by Guercino." The Art Quarterly 26 (Summer 1963): 217-233. Mentioned: pp. 217-233; Reproduced: p. 219, n. 1

Cummings, Frederick J. Art in Italy, 1600-1700. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1965. Mentioned: p. 101; Reproduced: p. 100

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 115 archive.org

Roli, Renato. I fregi centesi del Guercino. Bologna: R. Pàtron, 1968. Mentioned: p. 77, note 89

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 115 archive.org

Mahon, Denis. Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591-1666): catalogo critico dei disegni: Bologna, Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, 1 settembre-18 novembre 1968. Bologna: Alfa, 1969. Mentioned: p. 48

Bottari, Stefano, Renato Roli, and Anna Ottani Cavina. Guercino: Disegni. Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1972. Mentioned: p. 4, n. 21

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 136 archive.org

Schloder, John E. Baroque Imagery. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1984. Mentioned: pp. 51-52; Reproduced: p. 52, n. 23

Bagni, Prisco. Guercino a Cento: Le decorazioni di Casa Pannini. Bologna: Nuova Alfa, 1984. Mentioned: pp. 141-150, 165, n. 119; Reproduced: p. 151

Salerno, Luigi. I dipinti del Guercino. Rome: Ugo Bozzi, 1988. pp. 102-103

Mahon, Denis, and Nicholas Turner. The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle. Cambridge: Cambrdige University Press, 1989. Mentioned: p. 1

Stone, David Marshall. "Theory and Practice in Seicento Art: The Example of Guercino." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1989. Mentioned: pp. 233-236; Reproduced: fig. 40

Stone, David M. Guercino, Master Draftsman: Works from North American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1991. Mentioned: p. 4; Reproduced: p. 5

Mahon, Denis. Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, 1591-1666: Disegni: Bologna, Museo civico archeologico, Cento, Pinacoteca civica e Chiesa del Rosario, 6 settembre-10 novembre 1991. Bologna: Nuova Alfa, 1991. Mentioned: p. 28

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 88

Turner, Nicholas, Carol Plazzotta. Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, with an Appendix Describing the Drawings by Guercino, His School and His Followers in the British Museum. London: British Museum Press, 1991. Mentioned: pp. 35-36

Stone, David M. Guercino: Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence: Cantini, 1991. Mentioned: p. 38

DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 3, 48-49, 285; Reproduced p. 49, n. 14

Turner, Nicholas. The Paintings of Guercino: A Revised and Expanded Catalogue Raisonné. Roma: Ugo Bozzi Editore s.r.l., 2017. Mentioned; p.289, cat. 30.87

Exhibition history

Master Drawings Selected from the Museums and Private Collections of America. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (January 1-31, 1935).

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 28-December 9, 1937).

Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, London. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 30-October 30, 1938).

Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 4-March 26, 1939).

Drawings by Old Italian Masters. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 5, 1940-February 25, 1941).

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 27, 1941).

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 22-October 26, 1941).

Italian Drawings, 1330-1780. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (organizer) (December 1-20, 1941).

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942).

50th Anniversary of the Museum's Opening. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA (organizer) (April 9-May 16, 1948).

Seventy Master Drawings. Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (November 27, 1948-January 6, 1949).

Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (June 1-September 15, 1950).

Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).

Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960).

Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960).

Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).

Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-31, 1964).

Art in Italy, 1600-1700. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (April 6-May 9, 1965).

Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967).

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968).

Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-February 25, 1968).

Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968).

Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 1980-February 15, 1981).

National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983).

Baroque Imagery. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 1984-January 6, 1985).

Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 1986-March 1, 1987).

Guercino: Master Draftsman: Works from North American Collections. Harvard University Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (February 15-March 31, 1991); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,, Canada (May 3-June 16, 1991); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (August 27-October 13, 1991).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Venus and Cupid in a Chariot|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1188|author=Guercino|year=1615–17|access-date=09 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Venus and Cupid in a Chariot

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