GUERCINO, GIOVAN FRANCESCO BARBIERI, known as Il Guercino. — Painter, born in Cento on 8 Feb. 1591, died in Bologna on 22 Dec. 1666; he was called Il Guercino because of the loss of his right eye, which occurred when he was very young. Having grown up and established himself in the Bolognese milieu, he became the most robust and gifted among the masters of that school and one of the leading exponents of 17th-century painting in Italy. His master in his youth was Benedetto Gennari the Elder, a modest follower of the Carracci; but in his twenties, after settling in Bologna, he was drawn to their works, especially those of Ludovico.
Some of his mural decorations belong to the period 1615–17; these were executed in the Pannini house in Cento and are now in the possession of the Marchese Del Turco in Bologna. In them there appear surprising qualities of landscape and rustic realism, but it was only in 1620 that the artist began his happiest and most characteristic manner with the original *St William of Aquitaine* (Pinacoteca, Bologna), rich in lively and velvety chiaroscural effects and warm ivory and brown tones. In the following years he was in Rome, where he absorbed the classical ideals then current in that environment, though also drawing on post-Caravaggesque styles. More memorable than the monumental, though somewhat forced, canvas of *The Burial of St Petronilla* (1621) in the Capitoline Gallery is the fancifully romantic decoration of *Aurora*, painted in the casino of Villa Ludovisi and showing echoes of Dosso Dossi. Returning to Cento in 1623, he remained there until 1646, though in 1626 he was in Piacenza to fresco the dome of that cathedral. During this second Centese period he produced with inexhaustible verve works on every subject, though not always convincing, especially the large canvases. One of his masterpieces from this period is *St Bruno at the Feet of the Virgin* (Pinacoteca, Ferrara), remarkable for its extraordinary plastic and luminous power, which almost recalls the Spanish painters, even in the types depicted. Moving to Bologna in 1642, he took up the path already trodden by Guido Reni, losing some of his native qualities of incisive form and content. A large number of drawings and sketches in pencil, sanguine and pen have also survived, among which are genuine jewels of expressive immediacy. Among his pupils, besides his nephews the Gennaris, mention should be made in particular of his brother Paolo Antonio (b. in Cento in 1603, d. in Bologna in 1649), an excellent still-life painter. — See pl. LXXXVIII.