(Cento 1591–1666 Bologna)
Saint Paul,
oil on canvas, 60.5 x 49 cm, framed

Inscribed on the stretcher (and not on the back of the canvas): Firmato tra la tela e la fodera sotto il tel…/“Giov: Francesco Barbieri” di il Guercino

Provenance:
possibly Abate Duccini;
Private European collection

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original.

We are also grateful to Daniele Benati for independently confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original.

Over his long career Guercino made several bust-length pictures of Saint Paul, including one in the Louvre, painted in 1644 (L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome, 1988, no. 210, where it is reproduced in reverse). In the Louvre picture, the bearded saint is seen in profile to the left. He has black hair and is partly bald. He wears a bright crimson robe and holds in his left hand the grip of his sword, symbol of his martyrdom. He is dissimilar in practically every respect to the saint represented here.

An almost exact counterpart, in reverse, to the Saint Paul in the present canvas appears, however, in half-length in the left background of the tier with saints in the All Saints in Glory in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse (L. Salerno, op.cit., p. 230). The Toulouse picture was painted in 1645–47 for the high altar of the church of the Sacre Stimmate, Modena. Apart from the difference of their being in reverse to each other, both here and the altarpiece the saint is shown half turned to the front. In both he has a large high forehead, a straight nose and copious brown hair and beard. His sword is held to his body with the hilt jutting over the top of his shoulder so that it is silhouetted against the background.

It was Guercino’s habit in his bust-length paintings of saints to refer in this way to his recent representations of them, records of which he would have had to hand in drawings. Unique to the present Saint Paul, in order to fill the composition at the bottom, is the addition of the saint’s right hand, which holds the sword loosely at the top of the blade, just beneath the guard, the index finger pointing at a book with a clasp, held unseen by the left hand, the book alluding to his Epistles. The sword, the pointing finger and the book give support and add symbolic context for the head. Only the upper half of the saint’s left hand appears in the Toulouse picture, half lost amongst his drapery as he hitches up the sword under his left arm.

Malvasia records a commission that Guercino received in 1653 from abate Duccini: ̍Un S. Paolo, ed un S. Pietro' (C. C. Malvasia, Felsina pittrice, vite de’ pittori bolognesi, Bologna 1841, II, p. 270). When the payment of 50 scudi, on behalf of Duccini, was registered in the artist’s Account Book, on 16 March 1654, the canvases are described as ‘due Teste’ and were priced accordingly (see Libro dei Conti del Guercino: 1629–1666, Bologna 1997, p. 165, no. 481).

It seems likely that the ex-Duccini Saint Paul is the present canvas, previously recorded as untraced. Its pendant of Saint Peter remains to be found.

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for cataloguing the present painting.

Inscribed in brown ink on the back of the canvas, at the edges folded over the stretcher: Giovan Frencesco Barbieri il Guercino.

Provenance:
possibly Abate Duccini;
Private European collection

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original.

We are also grateful to Daniele Benati for independently confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original.

Over his long career Guercino made several bust-length pictures of Saint Paul, including one in the Louvre, painted in 1644 (L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome, 1988, no. 210, where it is reproduced in reverse). In the Louvre picture, the bearded saint is seen in profile to the left. He has black hair and is partly bald. He wears a bright crimson robe and holds in his left hand the grip of his sword, symbol of his martyrdom. He is dissimilar in practically every respect to the saint represented here.

An almost exact counterpart, in reverse, to the Saint Paul in the present canvas appears, however, in half-length in the left background of the tier with saints in the All Saints in Glory in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse (L. Salerno, op.cit., p. 230). The Toulouse picture was painted in 1645–47 for the high altar of the church of the Sacre Stimmate, Modena. Apart from the difference of their being in reverse to each other, both here and the altarpiece the saint is shown half turned to the front. In both he has a large high forehead, a straight nose and copious brown hair and beard. His sword is held to his body with the hilt jutting over the top of his shoulder so that it is silhouetted against the background.

It was Guercino’s habit in his bust-length paintings of saints to refer in this way to his recent representations of them, records of which he would have had to hand in drawings. Unique to the present Saint Paul, in order to fill the composition at the bottom, is the addition of the saint’s right hand, which holds the sword loosely at the top of the blade, just beneath the guard, the index finger pointing at a book with a clasp, held unseen by the left hand, the book alluding to his Epistles. The sword, the pointing finger and the book give support and add symbolic context for the head. Only the upper half of the saint’s left hand appears in the Toulouse picture, half lost amongst his drapery as he hitches up the sword under his left arm.

Malvasia records a commission that Guercino received in 1653 from abate Duccini: ̍Un S. Paolo, ed un S. Pietro' (C. C. Malvasia, Felsina pittrice, vite de’ pittori bolognesi, Bologna 1841, II, p. 270). When the payment of 50 scudi, on behalf of Duccini, was registered in the artist’s Account Book, on 16 March 1654, the canvases are described as ‘due Teste’ and were priced accordingly (see Libro dei Conti del Guercino: 1629–1666, Bologna 1997, p. 165, no. 481).

It seems likely that the ex-Duccini Saint Paul is the present canvas, previously recorded as untraced. Its pendant of Saint Peter remains to be found.

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for cataloguing the present painting.