Gallery Label Luigi Gonzaga (born 1568) was the eldest son of Ferdinando Gonzaga, marquis of Castiglione. Determined to enter the Church, he resigned the marquisate in favor of his younger brother, and in 1585 entered the Jesuit novitiate in Rome, where he devoted himself to the care of the poor until he died of the plague in 1591. He was beatified in 1621 and canonized in 1726. Guercino's altarpiece was commissioned for the church of the Theatines at Guastalla in 1650 by Don Ferrante III Gonzaga, duke of Guastalla. An angel holds a heavenly wreath over the saint's head, while at his feet is a sheaf of lilies, representing chastity, and a crown, symbolizing the marquisate he had renounced.
Notes In 1662 Guercino painted another altarpiece of this subject. Commissioned by the Prince of Massa for the city of Palermo, this picture has since disappeared. Judging from the price (370 scudi), it appears to have been smaller than the altarpiece for Guastalla.
Provenance commissioned by Quaranta Sampieri on behalf of Don Ferrante III, Duke of Guastalla, for an altar in the right transept of the church of Santa Maria del Castello, Guastalla (by 1651–1805; valued at 500 scudi; expropriated in 1805 by Moreau, the French General Administrator for Guastalla); Mérédic-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint Méry, Parma (1805–06); the painter Gaetano Callani, Parma (1806; transferred to Junot); Jean Andache Junot, duc d'Abrantes, Paris (1806–d. 1813; his sale, Christie's London, May 4, 1818, no. 58, for 190 gns. to Woodburn); [Woodburn, from 1818]; [Sanquirico, Milan, until 1821; sold to Grant for 300 Luigi and 3 horses with their saddles; equivalent to 400 Louis d'or]; John Grant, Kilgraston, Scotland (1821–d. 1873); his son, Charles Thomas Constantine Grant, Kilgraston, Scotland (1873–d. 1891; sale, T. Chapman & Son, Edinburgh, April 15, 1882, no. 87, for £100, bought in); his son, John Patrick Nisbet Hamilton Grant, Biel Dunbar, Scotland (1891–d. 1950); his cousin, Basil Charles Barrington Brooke (1950–57; sold through Agnew, London, to Wrightsman); Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1957–73; cat., 1973, no. 13)
Exhibition History Edinburgh. Royal Institution. "Third Exhibition of Ancient Pictures," April 17, 1826, no. 36.
London. British Institution. June 1857, no. 4.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1873, no. 225.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," March 26–May 24, 1987, not in catalogue.
References Carlo Cesare Malvasia. Felsina pittrice: vite de' pittori bolognesi . Bologna, 1678, vol. 2, p. 378.San Luigi di Gonzaga and Guercino . Bruges, 1882, pp. 7–8, ill.Art News 65 (February 1967), p. 60, fig. 5.Apollo 90 (September 1969), p. 233, ill. (color).Letter to Evertt Fahey . August 30, 1970.in "Paintings, Drawings." The Wrightsman Collection . 5, [New York], 1973, pp. 117–25, ill., the whole (color) and details.Civilità Mantovana 10 (1976), pp. 170–81, ill.Rediscoveries in Art: Some Aspects of Taste, Fashion and Collecting in England and France . Ithaca, N.Y., 1976, p. 32 n. 42.Dipinti "reggiani" del Bonone e del Guercino (pittura et documenti) . Exh. cat.Reggio Emilia, 1982, pp. 113–14, no. 23, ill. (color).I dipinti del Guercino . Rome, 1988, p. 346, no. 276, ill. (color).The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle . New York, 1989, p. 72.Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 48 (Spring 1991), pp. 38–40, ill. (color).Guercino: catalogo completo dei dipinti . Florence, 1991, p. 272, no. 263, ill. (color).Il libro dei conti del Guercino, 1629–66 . Bologna, 1997, p. 146.Historienmalerei und Heiligsprechung: Pierre Subleyras (1699–1749) und das Bild für den Papst im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert . Munich, 2000, pp. 275, 318, fig. 158.in The Wrightsman Pictures . New York, 2005, pp. 32–34, no. 8, ill. (color).
Add to My Met Gallery
Print
Previous View
Enlarge
Zoom