Bust of a Man Facing Right
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Italian
Not on view
William Griswold (1991) dated this drawing to the 1630s, based on its stylistic similarity with other studies of heads datable to the same period. Linda Wolk-Simon (1991) notes that Nicholas Turner (in an unpublished opinion) includes the Museum's sheet in a group of studies from the 1630s that are similar in handling and subject matter. Among this group, which features single male figures in half- or bust-length, are Studies of a Man Reading (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge inv. 1932.233), Old Bearded Man (Royal Library, Windsor; inv. 2588) and St. Joseph Holding a Staff ( Princeton University Art Museum inv. 40-40).
While the dating of Guercino's mature period drawings can often be tricky, a date in the early to mid 1640s may be suggested on the basis of its great economy of style and technique: deep tonal modeling in washes, with little or no internal pen hatching in the shadows, a restrained use of pen and ink outlines. The drawing is precisely comparable to a study of a warrior from this period (Private Collection; Turner and Plazzotta, 1991, no. 134, pp. 161-165).
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