Currently not on view
Cephalus and Procris,
1630s
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), 1591–1666; born Cento, Italy; died Bologna, Italy
x1948-733
This scene depicts the tragic ending of Ovid’s tale of Cephalus and his wife Procris, who had given him a hound and a magic javelin. Suspicious that her husband was being unfaithful, she followed him to the forest to spy on him while he was hunting. Thinking that there was an animal in the bush, he hurled his javelin at it, mortally wounding Procris. One of Guercino’s preliminary sketches for a lost painting, this drawing exemplifies how he exploited economical means for maximum expression, combining elegant yet robust contours with subtly varied washes to evoke the humanity of the subject matter with dramatic lighting and poignant details such as the weeping putto and the recumbent dog.
Information
Title
Cephalus and Procris
Dates
1630s
Medium
Pen and brown ink with brown wash on cream laid paper
Dimensions
21 x 28 cm. (8 1/4 x 11 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895
Object Number
x1948-733
Inscription
Lower left: Guercino
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: pp. 91-92, no. 237 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
- Luigi Salerno, I Dipinti del Guercino, (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 1988).
- Denis Mahon and Nicholas Turner, The drawings of Guercino in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989)., p. 77-78, mentioned under cat. no. 138
- David Stone, Guercino, master draftsman: works from North American collections, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museum; Bologna, Italy: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1991)., p. 118, no. 2; p. 218, no. 98
- Prisco Bagni, Diane De Grazia, Denis Mahon, Fausto Gozzi and Andrea Emiliani, Il Guercino, 1591-1666: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri: Bologna, Museo civico archeologico, Cento, Pinacoteca civica e Chiesa del Rosario, 6 settembre-10 novembre 1991, (Bologna: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1991)., p. 75-76 (illus.)
