Endymion Sleeping 1635–50 Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Italian A naked shepherd slumbers for eternity in the moonlit landscape, his staff discarded at his side, his cloak gathered beneath his arms as a pillow. Perpetually young and handsome, Endymion is beloved by the moon goddess Selene-whose presence here is suggested by the waning crescent in the sky. The largely self-trained Bolognese artist Guercino (whose nickname means "squinty-eyed" in Italian) made this drawing in about 1650, at the height of his artistic maturity. He sketched the scene with characteristic energy, in sinuous
Endymion Sleeping 1635–50 Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Italian A naked shepherd slumbers for eternity in the moonlit landscape, his staff discarded at his side, his cloak gathered beneath his arms as a pillow. Perpetually young and handsome, Endymion is beloved by the moon goddess Selene-whose presence here is suggested by the waning crescent in the sky. The largely self-trained Bolognese artist Guercino (whose nickname means "squinty-eyed" in Italian) made this drawing in about 1650, at the height of his artistic maturity. He sketched the scene with characteristic energy, in sinuous lines of dark brown ink softened at the edges with fluent washes that shine against the white surface of the Denis Mahon (see here "References": Mahon 1967, p. 8) first considered this drawing to be a study for the now lost picture of Endymion in full length painted for Don Antonio Ruffo of Messina. The payments for this picture are recorded in a document of March 1650 (as published by Giampetrino Zanotti in Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina pittrice, Vite de'pittori bolognesi, Bologna, 1841, vol. II, p. 331: Under the year 1650 - " Il dì 2 Marzo. / Dal Sig. Pietro Antonio Davìa si è ricevuto ducatoni N. 100 per parte del Sig. D. Antonio Ruffo da Messina, per pagamento dell' Endimione figura intera, e questi fanno lir. 500 e le monete furono dobloni che fanno dobble d'Italia N. 34 che sono lir. 503. 4 con il costo della cassetta, e subbio -- scudi 125 lire "). In all, Guercino's "Libro de' conti" (account book) records the painting of five pictures with Endymion as a subject, including the Davia picture over a period of fourteen years. Four of these specifically describe half-figures. The payments are recorded in Guercino's Libro dei conti in December 1644, September 1647, November 1657 and May 1658 (See Malvasia in Zanotti, 1841, pps. 325, 328, 338, and 338, respectively). Only the picture executed for Don Antonio Ruffo depicted the sleeping Endymion in f
Size: 3566px × 3085px
Photo credit: © MET/BOT / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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