Assassination of Amnon (Four Banditti Quarreling)
Etcher Francesco Bartolozzi Italian
After Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Italian
Publisher John & Josiah Boydell British
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.
