Guercino

Watermark: none.
For Guercino's frescoes in the Casino Ludovisi, Rome.
This delicate red chalk study was first published by David Stone, who recognized that it dates to Guercino's Roman period and relates closely to the amorini in the cypress trees alongside Guercino's Aurora in the Casino Ludovisi. As is often the case in Guercino's work, there is not an exact correspondence between the drawing and the painted figures, but the sketch at lower right on the Morgan sheet is notably close to the amorino with his back turned. The Morgan sketch was perhaps preceded by a rapidly drawn pen and ink study now in the Royal Collection, but the group was developed further in an additional red chalk study, formerly in the collection of Denis Mahon and now at the Ashmolean Museum, which comes very close to the final painted version. These drawings were then probably repurposed for the group of putti painted at the center of the vault in the Stanza of Rinaldo and Armida in the Palazzo Lancellotti in Rome, also painted in 1621 or 1622. While Guercino occasionally used red chalk throughout his career, even in his earliest years, the medium came to figure more prominently among his studies during his time in Rome--especially in the drawings for the Casino Ludovisi Aurora, which also include the well-known drawings in the Courtauld and the Royal Collection for the figure of Aurora and the Royal Collection study for the figure of Night in the lunette at the end of the Sala dell'Aurora. A drawing in red chalk for the figures of Tithonus (recto) and Day (verso) is a rare example of Guercino making use of blue paper; he was likely inspired to experiment with this combination of media after seeing the drawings of Roman artists such as Cristoforo Roncalli. Guercino would make increased use of red chalk in the years that followed, and this study could be easily compared to a number of similar drawings for the putti in the cupola of the cathedral in Piacenza, executed a few years later in 1627. -- Catalog entry: Guercino : virtuoso draftsman, Morgan Library & Museum, 2019, p. 44.