Assassination of Amnon (Four Banditti Quarreling)

After Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Italian

1792–98

Not on view

Bartolozzi reproduces a Guercino drawing owned by George III that shows men fighting around a table. In the 18th century the subject was unidentified, but today the composition is recognized as a study for an untraced Guercino's painting in which Amnon is attacked by the servants of his half-brother Absalom--sons of King David whose tragic interaction is described in II Samuel. The print is contained in a volume that promotes the Royal Collection, first published in 1764 by Richard Dalton--as the king's librarian, Dalton collected art for the crown in Italy, persuaded Bartolozzi to move to England, then commissioned him to produce a large number of prints after Guercino. London publishers John and Josiah Boydell, acquired Dalton's plates between 1790-91, and here reissued his set of 82 prints.

Artwork Details

Title: Assassination of Amnon (Four Banditti Quarreling)
Series/Portfolio: Eighty-two prints engraved by F. Bartolozzi, etc., from the original drawings of Guercino in the collection of His Majesty, vol. I
Etcher: Francesco Bartolozzi (Italian, Florence 1728–1815 Lisbon)
Artist: After Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) (Italian, Cento 1591–1666 Bologna)
Publisher: John & Josiah Boydell (British, 1786–1804)
Date: 1792–98
Medium: Etching, printed in brown ink; second state of two (De Vesme & Calabi)
Dimensions: Sheet: 20 5/16 × 13 3/4 in. (51.6 × 35 cm)
Plate: 9 × 12 3/16 in. (22.8 × 31 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966
Object Number: 66.659(8)
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Francesco Bartolozzi

By John & Josiah Boydell

In the same medium

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Eighty-two prints engraved by F. Bartolozzi, etc., from the original drawings of Guercino in the collection of His Majesty, vol. I / Seventy-three prints engraved by F. Bartolozzi &c. from the Original Pictures and Drawings of Michaelangelo, Domenichino, Annibal, Lodovico, and Agostino Carraci, Guercino, P. da Cortona, Carlo Maratti, Elisabetta Sirani, Pellegrino Tibaldi, Franceschino &c. in the collection of His Majesty, &c., vol. II

Multiple artists/makers

1792–98

Anonymous portrait, Francesco Bartolozzi Italian, Red chalk and graphite — Anonymous portrait
Francesco Bartolozzi
Hans Holbein the Younger
ca. 1794–1802

Venus and Adonis

Francesco Bartolozzi

n.d.

Michaelangelo

Multiple artists/makers

1765–1800

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