Currently not on view
Monk seated on a low bench, reading,
1630s–40s
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), 1591–1666; born Cento, Italy; died Bologna, Italy
x1948-1312
Guercino (“little squinter”), was also a tireless draftsman. Guercino constantly sketched his surroundings and fellow townspeople, continuing Leonardo’s interest in unusual faces, while also creating caricatures of specific individuals and inventing imaginary beings. This sheet belonged to an album of caricatures that was most likely compiled by an artist in eighteenth-century Bologna and was later owned by the British painter Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792). The scholarly monk hunched over his reading who is only partly visible to the viewer appears humorous.
Information
Title
Monk seated on a low bench, reading
Dates
1630s–40s
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brown wash on cream laid paper
Dimensions
19.2 x 15.2 cm (7 9/16 x 6 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895
Object Number
x1948-1312
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: pp. 9-10, no. 24 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
- David Stone, Guercino, master draftsman: works from North American collections, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museum; Bologna, Italy: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1991)., cat. nos. 87-91 (illus.); p. 198-207;
