Rare Guercino and Michelangelo Paintings Acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum

Written by Kieth Wagner Tuesday, 15 November 2011 20:48

FORT WORTH, TX.- The Kimbell Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, has acquired the painting Christ and the Woman of Samaria, dated to 1619–20, by the Italian artist Guercino, one of the foremost painters of his time. The purchase was announced today by the Museum’s director, Eric M. Lee. The painting dates from Guercino’s early, rarest, and most desirable period, when the artist achieved acclaim for the emotional power of his compositions. Also on exhibition is Michelangelo’s first known painting, The Torment of Saint Anthony, is now on view among the permanent collection of the Kimbell Art Museum.

“I am thrilled that the Kimbell has found an outstanding painting, such as this, from Guercino’s coveted early period,” commented Mr. Lee. “It has been a long-standing wish of the Museum to find a Guercino of this quality to enhance its exceptional collection of Baroque art. I look forward to seeing Christ and the Woman of Samaria hanging alongside the Kimbell’s masterpieces by Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Georges de La Tour, and Bernini.”

Christ and the Woman of Samaria (38 1/4 x 49 1/8 inches) presents a close-up view of the Samaritan woman, who rests her water bucket on the well where she has come to draw water, grappling to understand Christ’s message that he is the living water, the source of eternal life. The painting has never been published or exhibited, and prior to its purchase by a European private collector had been known only through copies and an old photograph of the work that was shown to Guercino expert Sir Denis Mahon many decades ago.

“Christ and the Woman of Samaria is, I believe, the finest painting by the artist to appear on the international market in years,” said Keith Christiansen, the John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He noted that the work is among the handful of paintings, including the Metropolitan Museum’s Samson Captured by the Philistines, “that are generally considered to mark the culmination of his early phase, in which he achieves a quality of dramatic movement through the use of gesture, pose, and brilliant, theatrical lighting. But there is another side to this aspect of Guercino, as beautifully exemplified in the Christ and the Woman of Samaria, and that is an interest in psychological characterization; the story is told not as an unfolding drama but as a moment of revelation, in which the viewer is less an observer than an eavesdropper of a private moment, and this confers on the work a particularly mesmerizing quality.”

“The bit of landscape behind them—the tree—serves to set the scene and offer a counterpoint to their closeness to the picture plane. We seem to overhear this conversation and are situated just the other side of the well—perhaps hidden by some tree or shrub, since the two figures are unaware of our presence. But we hear their words and we too are enraptured by this momentous encounter.”

Guercino
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591–1666)—known by his nickname Guercino (literally “squinter”) because he was cross-eyed—was born in the northern Italian town of Cento, near Bologna and Ferrara. Although he received his early training with local artists, he was largely self-taught. His early work was marked by an astonishing naturalism and ability to convey the expressive power of the human figure. He admired the Bolognese painter Ludovico Carracci, who in 1617 wrote a letter praising the young man from Cento “who paints with remarkable invenzione. He is a great draftsman and a terrific colorist: he is a phenomenon of nature and a true miracle who dumbfounds everyone who sees his works. . . even the top painters are awestruck.” The following year Guercino visited Venice, honing his talent as a colorist by studying the works of Titian and other Venetian painters.

The Kimbell’s Christ and the Woman of Samaria was painted during the same remarkably creative and productive period, perhaps for Ludovisi (later Pope Gregory XV, whom Guercino followed to Rome) or for Serra. In Rome, where he remained from 1621 until 1623, Guercino painted influential works that would have great impact on the development of Roman Baroque painting. On his return to Cento, he developed a classicizing style with a lighter, clearer palette and more lucid and restrained compositions. Guercino moved to Bologna in 1642, becoming the leading painter of that city following the death of Guido Reni. Although he turned down invitations to the courts of England and France, he maintained a prolific career, producing paintings for an international clientele including King Charles I of England. Guercino died in 1666 in Bologna. He left an impressive legacy of nearly 400 paintings and well over 1,000 drawings that demonstrate his extraordinary powers of invention.

Also on exhibition is Michelangelo’s first known painting, The Torment of Saint Anthony, is now on view among the permanent collection of the Kimbell Art Museum. The Kimbell Art Museum acquired the painting in May 2009.  Described by Michelangelo's earliest biographers, this remarkably fresh and well-preserved gem is believed to have been painted in 1487–88, when Michelangelo was 12 or 13 years old. The work is executed in egg tempera and oil on a wooden panel and is one of only four known easel paintings generally believed to come from his hand. The others are the Doni Tondo in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery and two unfinished paintings, The Manchester Madonna and The Entombment, both housed in the National Gallery, London.

The Kimbell's new acquisition is the first painting by Michelangelo to enter an American collection. Visit : https://www.kimbellart.org/

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