Annunciation
Artist
Il Guercino
(Italian, 1591 - 1666)
Date1628-1629
CultureItalian
MediumOil on canvas
ClassificationPaintings
ProvenancePainted for the Oratorio dell’Invenzione della Santa Croce, Reggio Emilia; sold in January 1787 to Francesco Parigi, Rome; sold in 1787 to Sir Richard Worsley (1751–1805), 7th Baronet, Appuldurcombe, Isle of Wight;2 by inheritance to his niece, Henrietta Anna Maria Charlotte Bridgeman Simpson (1788–1813, from 1806, Henrietta Anna Maria Charlotte Anderson-Pelham), Appuldurcombe, Isle of Wight, and Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire; by inheritance to her husband, Charles Anderson-Pelham (1781–1846), 1st Earl of Yarborough, Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire; by inheritance to his son, Charles Anderson Worsley Anderson-Pelham (1809–1862), 2nd Earl of Yarborough, Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire; by inheritance to his son, Charles Anderson- Pelham (1835–1875), 3rd Earl of Yarborough, Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire; by inheritance to his son, Charles Alfred Worsley Pelham (1859–1936), 4th Earl of Yarborough, Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire; (sold Yarborough sale, Christie’s, London, 12 July 1929, lot 37); John Ringling (1866–1936), Sarasota, Florida; bequest in 1936 to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida.
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN122
Guercino was one of the most important Italian painters of the Baroque period. He made this monumental pair of paintings—now framed as a single work—to be placed over the chancel arch of an important oratory (chapel) in the city of Reggio Emilia. While large-scale wall decorations were usually painted in fresco, Guercino apparently received permission from his patrons to execute the work in oil on canvas at his studio in Cento, outside Bologna. The union of the two canvases as one framed work likely dates to the 1780s, when the paintings were removed from the oratory and sold to an art dealer. Acquired by Mr. Ringling in 1929, this work is an excellent example of his pursuit of large-scale paintings by great masters for his museum collection.
On View
On viewLocation
- Museum of Art, Gallery 08, Wall South
Collections
Image (each section): 76 1/4 x 108 3/4 in. (193.7 x 276.2 cm)
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
after 1655
