Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
Mars brandishing a sword

CultureItalian
Titles
  • Mars brandishing a sword
Datec. 1640
MediumPen and brown iron gall ink on laid paper
DimensionsSheet: 10 × 7 3/4 in. (25.4 × 19.7 cm)
Frame (inner): 15 3/8 × 12 5/8 in. (39 × 32 cm)
Frame (outer): 18 11/16 × 15 7/8 × 13/16 in. (47.5 × 40.3 × 2 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Director's Accessions Endowment, and the Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors
Object number2022.10
Not on view

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Provenance'Casa Gennari' (associated number ‘44’ and associated mount, removed around 1953) [1]; John Bouverie (1723-1750) (Lugt 325) [2]; by inheritance to Christopher Hervey (died 1786). Charles Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough (1781-1866); David Koetser Collection, Zurich; [London, Sotheby’s, 22 July 1953, part of lot 7. with David Koetser, Zurich. Anonymous sale]; [New York, Christie’s, 13 January 1993, lot 33; The Estates of Bernard and Helga Kramarsky]; [London, Christie’s, Old Master & British Drawings, 14 January 2022, lot 6]

[1] Casa Gennari housed the studio of Guercino (q.v.) and his descendants.
[2] John Bouverie is often associated with the best of drawings by Guercino. An enthusiastic traveler, Bouverie died in Turkey in 1750 at the age of only 27, but during his short life he took advantage of his travels to collect antiquities, paintings, and drawings. While making his Grand Tour, mainly through Italy, before 1742. Bouverie was able to acquire a large number of drawings, including an entire album of sheets by Guercino purchased from the “Abbé Bonducci” in Florence, which came directly from the Gennari family, probably from Filippo Antonio Gennari. Given the large number of drawings by Guercino owned by Bouverie, he also acquired more drawings by the artist when he was in Italy again in1745-46, likely from Francesco Forni, the son of Antonio, the leading dealer in Old Master Drawings in Bologna. See N. Turner, ‘John Bouverie as a Collector of Drawings,’ The Burlington Magazine, vol. 136, February 1994, pp. 90-99; N. Turner and C. Plazzotta, Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, exhib. cat., London, British Museum, 1991, p. 22

Exhibition HistoryBologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, 1591-1666. Disegni, 1991, no. 115, ill. (catalogue by D. Mahon).
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto: inscribed in graphite, bottom left corner: 44
Verso: [inaccessible]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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