Cleopatra bitten by the asp

Details

GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI, IL GUERCINO (CENTO 1591-1666 BOLOGNA)
Cleopatra bitten by the asp
red chalk, watermark Barberini arms with cardinal’s hat
21.7 x 20.3 cm (8 1⁄2 x 8 in.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 8 July 1975, lot 28.
with Herman Shickman, New York, 1976.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, New York, 22 January 2004, lot 37.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, New York, 24 January 2008, lot 30.

Literature

C. van Tuyll, Guercino Drawings from Dutch Collections, exhib. cat., Haarlem, Teylers Museum, 1991, p. 130, under no. 54.
D.M. Stone, Guercino. Master Draughtsman. Works from North American Collections, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Mass., Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 1991, pl. XIII.
P. Boccardo, Genova e Guercino, exhib. cat., Genoa, Palazzo Rosso, 1992, p. 78, under no. 23.
B. Ghelfi, Il libro dei conti del Guercino 1629-1666, Bologna, 1997, no. 387.
N. Turner, The Paintings of Guercino. A Revised and Expanded Catalogue raisonné, Rome, 2017, p. 644, under no. 351.

Exhibited

Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino. Disegni, 1991, no. 138, ill.
New York, Richard L. Feigen & Co., Giovanni Francesco Barbieri. Il Guercino 1591-1666, 1992, no. 10.

Special Notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice. Christie’s has a direct financial interest in this lot. Christie’s has guaranteed to the seller that whatever the outcome of the auction, the seller will receive a minimum sale price for the work. This is known as a minimum price guarantee.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Stefano Franceschi Specialist

sfranceschi@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7752 3103

Lot Essay

This is a study for Guercino’s painting of The Death of Cleopatra now in Palazzo Rosso, Genoa (fig. 1; N. Turner, op. cit., no. 351, ill.). The painting has been identified with the ‘Quadro di Cleopatra’ recorded in Guercino’s account book as having been made for the Abbate Carlo Emanuele Durazzo at a cost of 125 ducatoni on 24 March 1648 (B. Ghelfi, op. cit., p. 138, no. 387, ill.). A few years later Guercino painted another version of the subject for the Genoese nobleman Gerolamo Panesi; that painting is now in a private collection (N. Turner, op. cit., no. 372, ill.). In the second version Cleopatra's pose was altered to lying on her bed. Aside from small differences, the painting in Palazzo Rosso and the present drawing are compositionally identical. Another drawing of the same subject, but in pen and brown ink, was in the Stichting Collectie P. en N. de Boer (C. van Tuyll, op. cit., under no. 54) and was sold in these Rooms on 4 July 1995, lot 55.

Fig. 1. Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, The Death of Cleopatra, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa.

More from Old Master and British Works on Paper: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints 1500-1900

View All