Waddesdon highlights a less familiar Baroque master
We visit Waddesdon Manor for their display of works by Guercino...
By
Susan Gray
April 18, 2024
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
Caravaggio’s dramatic realism and chiaroscuro are known and well-loved by British audiences, but his northern Italian contemporaries Guido Reni and Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in 1591 and nicknamed Guercino because he was cross-eyed) are less familiar. Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is a closely focused primer on Guercino, whose biography is a model of industry and staying close to his hometown Cento, near Bologna, compared to the brawling and renegade Caravaggio.
King David, The Cumaean Sibyl and The Samian Sibyl, all painted in 1651, are a baroque bridge into late medieval religious thought, where the Old Testament and Classical literature were combed for references and allusions that could be read as prefiguring the coming of Christ. The case for David, king, warrior, slayer of Goliath and psalmist is straightforward enough. David, father of Solomon, was born in Bethlehem, as was Jesus, according to the gospels, making Jesus part of the house of David. The ancient Greek prophetesses were credited with predicting the circumstances of Christ’s birth, through later written collections of their prophecies. Pairing the sibyls with the prophets was well established in decorative schemes for religious spaces, Michelangelo alternated prophets and sibyls on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Both David and The Samian Sybil were hung for many years in Spencer House, and retain their broad, intricately decorated, neoclassical frames, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart to blend in with the interior of the neo–Palladian St James Mansion. Side by side in the small, red damask-lined gallery at Waddesdon, the frames’ impact is far more apparent than in the National Gallery, The Samian Sybil’s home since 2012, having been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax from the Spencer family. The intimacy of Waddesdon’s Red Ante Room also emphasises that David and the Sybils were intended for a domestic setting, not a church or religious institution.
David was commissioned by 24-year-old Giuseppe Locatelli, who had inherited his father’s family home in Cesena, near Rimini. Originally, the pendant painting for David was to be the Cumaean Sibyl, a pairing that underlined the role of Hebrew and pagan figures in foretelling the coming of Christ. But the Cumaean Sybil never made it to Palazzo Locatelli, as it was bought by Prince Mattias de Medici brother of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He visited Guercino’s studio when the painting was near completion and purchased it on the spot. King David went to Cesena on its own, and Guercino created a new work for Locatelli, The Samian Sibyl. For a brief period, the two Sibyls overlapped in the studio, and this is the first time since 1651 David has been reunited with its intended Cumaean Sybil, and the Cumaean and replacement Samian Sybil can be seen as a pair.
Lord Rothschild, chair of the Rothschild Foundation, who died in February, described Guercino’s mature but not old David as ‘the boardroom portrait’. The usual attributes associated with the Biblical figure are absent: no slingshot, harp, severed giant’s head or bathing Bathsheba. Synthesising David’s identity, he is given past and present signifiers of status. The pose and drapery recall statues of Roman emperors, and the ermine across the shoulders and lap echoes modern European royalty, the kaftan-style red robe recalling other seventeenth century paintings set in the Holy Land, including the artist’s Return of the Prodigal Son (1652) and Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael (1657). David’s pensive expression, as if taking stock of the highs and lows of his life, is in keeping with the theme of penitence, a prominent subject in Counter-Reformation art. Similar conflicting emotions of perturbation and sadness can be seen in Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of David (1630) which was in Rome during Guercino’s lifetime, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath (c1610) and Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath (1605-06).
When David and the Wise Women was in the planning stage, a Guercino that had been lost since the Napoleonic era appeared on the market in 2022, at a Paris auction. The Rothschild Foundation acquired Moses (c1618-19), and the painting is now on display to the public for the first time. Painted before Guercino left for Rome in 1621 - summoned there by his patron Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna, who had become Pope Gregory XV. Upon the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Cento where he ran a prolific workshop. When his rival Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna as the city’s leading painter.
Moses reveals the vigorous brushstrokes and spontaneity of Guercino’s prima maniera (first manner), with its dramatic use of light and shade, distinctive depth of colour and expressive treatment of paint. The two rays of light emanating from Moses’ head suggest that he has received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, having smashed the first set after finding the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In Guercino’s rendering of the Exodus story, Moses is shown in close crop without the narrative props of the Tablets of the Law, or a staff or a fiery serpent. Instead, the focus is on slivers of white, denoting the edges of the sleeves, the outline of the head, and the robustly modelled hands raised in wonder. It is a work capturing an encounter with the divine.
Senior curator Juliet Carey has created an exhibition that is not just revelatory about the five paintings on show, but opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Italian baroque, and the role of collectors, connoisseurship and historical events in the art we see today.
Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women is showing at Waddesdon Manor until 27th October.
