Head of Young Man in a Broad-Brimmed Hat,

1630s–40s

This drawing clearly attests to Guercino’s standing as one of the most creative and prolific caricaturists of the seventeenth century. The word caricature comes from the Italian caricatura, indicating something “loaded” or “charged.” Caricature drawings are “loaded” as they exaggerate specific features or make odd juxtapositions that emphasize difference. Guercino’s caricatures are marvelous examples of his fertile imagination, and of his curiosity and gentle humor, yet at the same time they reveal the artist’s keen and compassionate observation of humanity
Guercino’s caricatures grew out of the revolutionary naturalism in painting developed by the Carracci (Annibale, Agostino, and Ludovico) and their followers in Bologna beginning in the early 1580s. The Carracci’s innovative curriculum of drawing instruction emphasized nature’s unidealized beauty as a primary source for artists. Although Leonardo da Vinci had made influential physiognomic studies of old men and women at the beginning of the sixteenth century, these had a scientific focus and a penchant for the grotesque that were quite different from the simple humor produced in the Carracci’s sketches.