The Entombment

1656

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri; Italian, 1591-1666)

Guercino’s career is unusually well documented, in part due to the survival of his account books, which reveal that he charged a set amount for each figure in a picture. According to the entry for this painting, the client wished to pay only for one full-length, one bust-length, and three half-length figures. Guercino’s moving composition attests to his resourcefulness in overcoming such restrictions. Christ and the attendant mourners are depicted with compelling restraint and in accord with the patron’s budget.

Status: On View, Gallery 211
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Guercino
Title: The Entombment
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1656
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 146.7 × 221.2 cm (57 3/4 × 87 1/16 in.); Framed: 172.7 × 247 × 8.9 cm (68 × 97 1/4 × 3 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Wilson L. Mead Fund
Reference Number: 1956.128
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/86323/manifest.json

Catalogo dei Quadri e pitture esistenti nel Palazzo dell’eccellentissima Casa Colonna in Roma (Presso Arcangelo Casaletti, 1783), p. 32, no. 205.
F. W. B. von Ramdohr, Ueb r Mahlerei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom II (1787), pp. 104-105.
William Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, vol. II (R. Ackermann,1824), pp. 117-118, cf. p. 89.
Giampietro Zanotti, Felsina Pittrices vite d’ Pittori Bolognese del Conte Carlo Cesare Malvasia vol. II (Tipografia Guidi all’Ancora, 1841), p. 337
George Redford, Art Sales vol. II (1888), p. 234.
Algernon Graves, Art Sales vol. I (Algernon Graves,1918), p. 385.
Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly Annual Report (Art Institute of Chicago,1956-1957), p. 52.
Federico Zeri, “La ‘Salome’ di Guido Gia in Casa Colonna,” Paragone 121 (1960), p. 53.
Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (1961, revised 1968) p. 208.
Denis Mahon, Il Guercino (Edizioni Alfa,1968), pp. 208-210.
Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, “Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, ‘el Guercino’ (1591-1666),” Goya 89 (March/April 1969), p. 284.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (1970, revised 1977), pp. 261, 281.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Harvard University Press,1972), pp. 98, 297, 571.
Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 71 (September/October 1977), pp. 15-16 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago 100 Masterpieces (Art Institute of Chicago,1978), p. 55 (ill.).
Cesare Gnudi, L’Ideal Classico (Edizioni Alfa,1981), p. 113, fig. 85.
Hugh Brigstocke, William Buchanan and the 19th century art trade: 100 letters to his agents in London and Italy (The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art,1982), p. 73.
Pier Giorgio Pasini, “Guercino e guercineschi fra Rimini e San Marino,” in Guercino e Dintorni: L’attività e l’influenza di Giovan Francesco Barbieri e Rimini e a San Marino (Nuova Alfa Editoriale,1987) p. 53, under no. 4.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (1988), p. 35 (ill.).
Luigi Salerno, I Dipinti del Guercino (Ugo Bozzi Editore,1988), p. 382, no. 317.
David M. Stone, Guercino: Catalog completo dei dipinti (Cantini, 1991), p. 313, no. 304.
David M. Stone, Guercino: Master Draftsman (Harvard University Art Museums/Nuova Alfa Editoriale,1991), no. 61.
Sir Dennis Mahon et. al., Giovanni Francesco Barberi: Il Guercino: 1591-1666 , exh. cat. (Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1991), pp. 374-5, cat. 145.
Guercino in Britain: Paintings from British Collections, exh. cat. (National Gallery Publications Limited/Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.,1991) pp. 6-7, fig. 5.
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Guercino: Master Painter of the Baroque, exh. cat. (National Gallery of Art, 1992), pp. 300-301, no. 54.
Il libro dei conti del Guercino, 1629-1666, edited by Barbara Ghelfi (Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1997), pp. 173-4.

Bologna, Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio, Il Guercino, September 1- November 18, 1968, cat. 99.
Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, Il Guercino. Dipinti e Disegni Il Guercino e la Bottega, September 6 - November 10, 1991, cat. 145; Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, November 30, 1991 - February 9, 1992; Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, March 15 - May 17, 1992.

Painted for anonymous “Cavaliere Veneziano,” 1656 [acc. to Guercino account book, see Stone, 1991]. Colonna Collection, Rome by 1783 [no. 205 in 1783 inventory]. Sold from Colonna collection to Giovanni de’ Rossi (Du Rubeis) [Mahon, 1968] after 1795 [listed in 1795 Colonna inventory]. Probably sold by Giovanni de’ Rossi (de Rubeis) to Sir Simon Clarke, by 1802 [Salerno (1988), also engraved in 1802 by P. Fontana]. Probably sold by Clarke to James Irvine as agent for William Buchanan by 1803 [Buchanan (1824) pp. 117-118]. John Humble. Probably consigned by Humble for sale by F. C. DeBligney, London, March 15, 1809, no. 94 but likely bought in [Getty provenance index]. Sold at Humble sale, Christie’s, London, April 11, 1812, no. 56 to Francis Charles Seymour-Conway, Earl of Yarmouth (later the 3rd Marquess of Hartford) for 430 guineas [Mahon, 1968]. Sold by Mr. Yates to Thomas Bulkeley Bulkeley-Owen (died 1867), Tedsmore Hall, Oswestry, England, 1818 [acc. Owen sale cat.]. Bought in, his sale, Christie’s, London, April 30,1868. By descent to his eldest son, Bulkeley Hatchett Bulkeley-Owen (died 1868), Tedsmore Hall; by descent to his brother, Rev. Thomas Mainwaring Bulkeley Bulkeley-Owen (died 1910), Tedsmore Hall; by descent to his twin sister, Mrs. Rev. Edward Jacson, (Frances Marianne Eliza), Tedsmore Hall; by descent to her son, Rev. Owen Fitzherbert Jacson (died 1935), Tedsmore Hall; by descent to his son, Fitzherbert Edward Shallcross Jacson, Tedsmore Hall; by descent to his wife, Mrs. F. E. S. Jacson (née Ruth Henrietta Hanmer). Julius H. Weitzner, New York. Sold by Weitzner to the Art Institute, 1956.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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