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Source 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
107189
label
Venus and Cupid in a Chariot
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
107189
contentType
drawing
title
Venus and Cupid in a Chariot
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.
date
1615–17
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79894696
creators
1190
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 25.5 x 39.4 cm (10 1/16 x 15 1/2 in.)
cul
Italy, Bologna
accession
1925.1188
Source extras
tec
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over red chalk
tombstone
Venus and Cupid in a Chariot, 1615–17. Guercino (Italian, 1591–1666). Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over red chalk; sheet: 25.5 x 39.4 cm (10 1/16 x 15 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1925.1188
supportMaterials
description
cream(3) laid paper
collection
DR - Italian
inscriptions
inscription
upper right, in brown ink: 44 .
didYouKnow
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.
citations
citation
Washburn, Gordon Bailey, and Agnes Mongan. <em>Master Drawings, Selected from the Museums and Private Collections of America; January, 1935, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York</em>. [Buffalo, N.Y.]: [F.W. Burow], 1935.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: cat. no. 38
citation
Kennedy, Ruth Wedgwood. <em>Italian Drawing, 1330-1780, Smith College Museum of Art</em>. [Northampton, MA.]: [Press-work by A. Wilson], 1941.
page_number
Mentioned: cat. no. 42
citation
Tietze, Hans. <em>European Master Drawings in the United States</em>. New York: J.J. Augustin, 1947.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 114, n. 57; Reproduced: p. 115
citation
Worcester Art Museum. <em>Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of Europe During the XVIth-XVIIth Centuries. April 11 to May 16, 1948</em>.
page_number
Mentioned: cat. no. 45
citation
Mongan, Agnes. <em>One Hundred Master Drawings</em>. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 72; Reproduced: p. 73
citation
Detroit Institute of Arts. <em>Loan Exhibition of Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums: Detroit Institute of Arts, June 1-September 15, 1950</em>. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1950.
page_number
Mentioned: cat. no. 21
citation
Marangoni, Matteo. <em>Guercino</em>. Milano: Aldo Martello, 1959.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 11, n. 8; Reproduced: n. 8
citation
Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. "Old and Modern Drawings: A Drawing by Guercino." <em>The Art Quarterly </em>26 (Summer 1963): 217-233.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 217-233; Reproduced: p. 219, n. 1
citation
Cummings, Frederick J. <em>Art in Italy, 1600-1700</em>. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1965.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 101; Reproduced: p. 100
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 115
citation
Roli, Renato. <em>I fregi centesi del Guercino.</em> Bologna: R. Pàtron, 1968.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 77, note 89
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 115
citation
Mahon, Denis. <em>Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591-1666): catalogo critico dei disegni: Bologna, Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, 1 settembre-18 novembre 1968</em>. Bologna: Alfa, 1969.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 48
citation
Bottari, Stefano, Renato Roli, and Anna Ottani Cavina. <em>Guercino: Disegni</em>. Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1972.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 4, n. 21
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 136
citation
Schloder, John E. <em>Baroque Imagery</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1984.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 51-52; Reproduced: p. 52, n. 23
citation
Bagni, Prisco. <em>Guercino a Cento: Le decorazioni di Casa Pannini</em>. Bologna: Nuova Alfa, 1984.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 141-150, 165, n. 119; Reproduced: p. 151
citation
Salerno, Luigi. <em>I dipinti del Guercin</em>o. Rome: Ugo Bozzi, 1988.
page_number
pp. 102-103
citation
Mahon, Denis, and Nicholas Turner. <em>The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle</em>. Cambridge: Cambrdige University Press, 1989.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 1
citation
Stone, David Marshall. "Theory and Practice in Seicento Art: The Example of Guercino." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1989.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 233-236; Reproduced: fig. 40
citation
Stone, David M. <em>Guercino, Master Draftsman: Works from North American Collections</em>. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1991.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 4; Reproduced: p. 5
citation
Mahon, Denis. <em>Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, 1591-1666: Disegni: Bologna, Museo civico archeologico, Cento, Pinacoteca civica e Chiesa del Rosario, 6 settembre-10 novembre 1991</em>. Bologna: Nuova Alfa, 1991.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 28
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 88
citation
Turner, Nicholas, Carol Plazzotta. <em>Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, with an Appendix Describing the Drawings by Guercino, His School and His Followers in the British Museum</em>. London: British Museum Press, 1991.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 35-36
citation
Stone, David M. <em>Guercino: Catalogo completo dei dipinti</em>. Florence: Cantini, 1991.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 38
citation
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 3, 48-49, 285; Reproduced p. 49, n. 14
citation
Turner, Nicholas. The Paintings of Guercino: A Revised and Expanded Catalogue Raisonné. Roma: Ugo Bozzi Editore s.r.l., 2017.
page_number
Mentioned; p.289, cat. 30.87
creditline
Dudley P. Allen Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 05:45:49.964000
sourceId
107189
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - Italian
med
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over red chalk
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
a1a7ddc887ff00fd