Christ appearing to Saint Teresa of Ávila

Details

ATTRIBUTED TO GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI, IL GUERCINO (CENTO 1591-1666 BOLOGNA)
Barbieri, G.F.
Christ appearing to Saint Teresa of Ávila
red chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, watermark crowned head in a shield
12 ¼ x 9 ¼ in. (31 x 23.3 cm)

Provenance

John Rushout, Lord Northwick (1770-1859), Northwick Park and Cheltenham; by descent to
Captain Edward George Spencer-Churchill (1876-1964), Northwick Park; Sotheby’s, London, 1 November 1920, lot 21.
with Frederick Richard Meatyard, London.
with Colnaghi, London (Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, 1971, no. 21, pl. VII, as Guercino).
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 24 January 2001, lot 3 (as Guercino).

Literature

D. Mahon and N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge, 1989, p. 48, under no. 82.
N. Turner and C. Plazzotta, Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, London, 1991, p. 128, under no. 98.
D. Stone, Guercino Master Draftsman. Works from North American Collections, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Art Museums, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, and Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992, p. 79, under no. 31, note 5.
N. Turner, The Paintings of Guercino. A Revised and Expanded Catalogue Raisonné, Rome, 2017, p. 493, under no. 205.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The composition is related to the altarpiece executed by Guercino in 1634 and now in the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence (Turner, op. cit., no. 205, ill.). The painting, representing Christ appearing to Saint Teresa and showing her the glory of God, is recorded in Guercino’s Libro dei conti (B. Ghelfi, Il libro dei conti del Guercino, 1629-1666, Venice, 1997, pp. 72-73 and 75) as commissioned by Barthélémy Lumague for his family chapel in Lyon. A print after the painting was executed by Gilles Rousselet (1610-1686) and many preparatory drawings for the composition survive (Turner, op. cit., p. 493, under no. 205). In all the literature cited above this drawing is given to Guercino himself. Of the connected drawings, it is the closest in composition to the painting, but it is unusual in the use of red chalk.

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