Watermark: none.
Detail study for alterpiece in S. Maria in Galliera, Bologna, painted in 1646-1647.
When Guercino received a commission to paint the Vision of St. Philip Neri, depicting the saint accompanied by two angels with the dove of the Holy Spirit and putti above, the compositional questions that he explored in his drawings concerned the placement of the attendant angels and the position of the saint's arms, either held down and back or stretching upward. The artist ultimately opted for raised arms, although this cast the angels as attendants at the vision rather than actors in the drama; the gesture may have seemed a better means of filling the tall vertical canvas when the upper register contained merely the putti and the dove. Fifteen years later, however, Guercino was paid to add a Virgin and Child near the top of the canvas. Even with the addition, the painting lacks the dramatic verve of this inspired drawing. -- Exhibition label: Guercino, virtuoso draftsman, Morgan Library & Museum, 4 October 2019-2 February 2020.
Numbered in graphite at upper right, "70".
Geiger, Benno, 1882-1965, former owner.
Cassini, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Marciari, John. Guercino : virtuoso draftsman. New York : Morgan Library & Museum, in association with Paul Holberton Publishing, 2019, no. 28, repr.
Stampfle and Bean 1967, no. 43; Salerno 1988, 317; Stone 1991a, 121, 220; Turner 2017, 636.
Stampfle, Felice, and Jacob Bean. Drawings from New York collections. II: The seventeenth century in Italy. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1967, no. 44, repr.
Scholz, Janos. Italian Master Drawings, 1350-1800, from the János Scholz Collection. New York : Dover, 1976, no. 86, repr.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Eighteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975-1977. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1978, p. 247.