Guercino

Despite the inscriptions that Guercino added to this drawing, the subject remains a mystery. At upper left, below the owl and other birds in the sky, Guercino penned the words Sicut Mat. (really insane), and on the pedestal upon which the central figure sits, Dai Dai / Al' Mat / Le Amatiì P[er] Che Là / Mangia del Cervel / D' Gat' al Lov (Go on, give it to the madman! He went mad because he ate the brains of cats like a wolf). The composition is arranged not unlike that for a Mocking of Christ, despite the decidedly secular subject matter, but, instead of a crown of thorns, the cross-eyed central figure wears an absurd hat decorated with playing cards and feathers. David Stone has also noted this mix of low subject matter and high art in comparing the drawing to studies for Guercino's Samson and the Philistines painted in 1619 for Cardinal Serra (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art); some comparison to motifs and gestures in The Resurrection of Lazarus (Musée du Louvre) might also be cited. The graphic technique of the Mocking of the village madman also closely resembles that of other early drawings, such as The Madonna del Carmine and saints, further argument for dating the present sheet to around 1619. The meaning of the particular insult associated with eating cat brains is not clear, but both the style of this drawing and the mysterious, slightly repulsive satire find a pair in a drawing at Windsor in which a street vendor sells "fontanelle," or chicken gizzards, the blood from which could be used as a cauterizing agent for cuts. Relatively few of Guercino's genre scenes or satires, however, rely on verbal clues; most make their humorous points or mocking observations through imagery alone. The Morgan and Windsor drawings thus seem to involve more complex stories, or perhaps inside jokes only humorous to their intended viewers. -- Catalog entry: Guercino : virtuoso draftsman, Morgan Library & Museum, 2019, p. 40.