Displaying items by tag: guercino

Sopranos actor Federico Castelluccio now owns a painting that has been authenticated as a work by Italian baroque painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri.

The painter, more commonly known as Guercino, a nickname he earned for his pronounced squint, was a master of chiaroscuro, or the treatment of light and shade, a talent which inspired comparisons to Caravaggio.

A very large painting by Guercino has been stolen from San Vincenzo church in Modena, Italy, the Agence France-Presse reports. The 1639 painting measures more than 9 feet tall and 6 feet wide, and depicts Mary accompanied by John the Evangelist and Saint Gregory. According to Italian art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, it is worth between €5–6 million ($6.7–8 million). The work was last seen around mid-day on August 10, a member of the church told the AFP.

“It’s an altarpiece with a magnificently dressed Saint Gregory,” Sgarbi told the AFP, “a monumental work from the first phase of the artist’s mature period.”

A remarkable collection of Italian Baroque paintings worth $155 million has been donated to galleries and museums across the UK. The works were previously part of the private collection of Sir Denis Mahon, a philanthropist and heir to the Guinness Mahon banking fortune who died in 2011 at the age of 100. Mahon, who began collecting in the 1930s, was an avid believer that admission to public museums should be free of charge. In keeping with his wishes, Mahon’s generous gift will be revoked if any institution charges the public to see them.

The Art Fund charity, which oversaw the exchange, announced that the transfer of 57 Italian Baroque paintings has been completed. The National Gallery has received 25 works; 12 paintings went to the Ashmolean in Oxford; 8 pieces are now in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh; 6 works went to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge; the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery received 5 paintings; and one work was given to the Temple Newsam House in Leeds. The gift included works by Guercino (1591-1666), Guido Reni (1575-1642), Domenichino (1581-1641), and Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619).

In addition to the sizable donation, Mahon left $1.5 million to the Art Fund and 50 works associated with Guercino to the Ashmolean.