The attribution to Guercino of this newly-discovered, double-sided drawing is confirmed by the study on the verso of a kneeling man with his hands tied behind his back, which is an early idea, probably drawn from life, for St James's companion in Guercino's lost altarpiece of the Martyrdom of St James the Greater, painted in 1627 for the Cappella Prini in SS. Pietro e Prospero, Reggio Emilia (Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, 1988, p. 209, no. 118). The artist began the altarpiece while still at work on his frescoes in the cupola of Piacenza cathedral.
The appearance of this lost altarpiece survives, in reverse, in an engraving (above)
Workshop of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called GUERCINO (Cento 1591 - 1666 Bologna)
46 x 35 cm
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Provenance
Private collection, France- Recto with the Burial and Assumption of Saint Petronilla by Guercino, painted in 1623 for Saint Peter and now at the Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome.
- Verso with the Martyrdom of Saint James the Greater by Guercino, painted in 1627 for the Cappella Prini in SS. Pietro and Prospero, Reggio Emilia; lost but known from the engraving by Giovanni Battista Pasqualini, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale.
This fascinating double-sided sheet was recently identified as one of Guercino's earliest works by Nicholas Turner.
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