(Cento 1591–1666 Bologna)
Saint Francis receiving the Stigmata,
oil on canvas, 113 x 94 cm, framed
We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the orginal and for his help in cataloguing this lot.
This previously unknown painting by Guercino is in Turner’s opinion a large-sized modello for his altarpiece of Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, oil on canvas, 264 x 176 cm (see N. Turner, The Paintings of Guercino. A Revised and Expanded Catalogue raisonné, Rome 2017, no. 196). This was painted in 1633 for the high altar of the church of San Francesco, in the town of San Giovanni in Persiceto, Bologna, and is now in San Giovanni Battista, Campello Monti, a church in a small village in the mountains of Piedmont (see fig. 1). The altarpiece has been discussed in Guercino: Il ‘San Francesco’ ritrovato,