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Study for 'The Assassination of Amnon at the feast of Absalom' (recto)
Study of two figures (verso)

Maker

(artist)
1591-1666

Title

Study for 'The Assassination of Amnon at the feast of Absalom' (recto)
Study of two figures (verso)

Date of Production

1628

Medium

pen and brown ink, brown wash and a stroke of red wash (recto), pen and brown ink (verso), on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 20.1 cm
Width: 26.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1344

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords









Label Text

The sheer energy and directness of this drawing matches the violence of the Old Testament subject, the revenge of Absalom on his half-brother for the rape of their sister. Ordered to assassinate him, two servants lunge at their drunken victim. The altered position of Amnon’s arm unites it with that of his killer in a rhythmic arc, the whole composition bound together in a frenzy of line and wash.

Notes

The final painting, now missing, was commissioned in 1628 by Lorenzo Fioravanti.

Provenance

by descent to the artist's nephews, Benedetto Gennari (1633-1715) and Cesare Gennari (1637-1688), 1666; by descent to Cesare’s sons, Gianfrancesco Gennari (1671-1727) and Filippo Antonio Gennari (1677-1751), 1719; by descent to Gianfrancesco's son, Carlo Gennari (1716-1790); presumably Francesco Forni, Bologna (18th century) or Abbé Bonducci, Florence (18th century); presumably acquired from either of those by John Bouverie, England (ca. 1722/1723-1750), 1741 or 1745; by descent to his sister, Anne Hervey (d. 1757); by descent to her son, Christopher Hervey (d. 1786); by descent to his aunt, Elizabeth Bouverie (d. 1798); by descent to Sir Charles Middleton, later 1st Baron Barham (1726-1813); by descent to his son-in-law, Sir Gerard Noel, 2nd Baron Barham (1759-1838); by descent to his son, Charles Noel, later 1st Earl of Gainsborough (1781-1866); by descent to Charles Noel, 3rd Earl of Gainsborough (1850-1926); his sale, Christie's (London), 27 July 1922, part of lot 81 (a box containing 68 drawings by Guercino and others); purchased there by F.R. Meatyard (London) on behalf of Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b (£90 for the lot); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Guercino - Mind to Paper, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 22/02/2007-13/05/2007

Guercino - Mind to Paper, J Paul Getty Museum & Los Angeles & California & USA, 24/10/2006-21/01/2007

Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, British Museum, London, 1991 ...More

Drawings by Guercino and other Baroque Masters, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/02/1977-01/03/1977

Il Guercino - Catalogo critico dei disegni, Bologna, 01/09/1968-18/11/1968

Old Masters from the Witt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 01/01/1943-01/05/1943 ...Less

Literature

Guercino: Mind to paper, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Courtauld Gallery, London, 2006-2007 Los Angeles, 2006
no. 14
ill. on p. 48

Nel segno di Guercino: disegni dalle collezioni Mahon, Oxford e Cento, Pinacoteca Civica, Cento; Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2005-2006, 2005
p. 98

Drawings by Guercino from British collections, British Museum, London, 1991, 1991
cat. no. 71
pp. 16, 19, 31 note 92, 32 note 108, 33, 99, 102
pl. 14 ...More

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri: Il Guercino, 1591-1666, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991
p. 426

Mahon, Denis and Nicholas Turner, The drawings of Guercino in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989
p. 78 under no. 29

Guercino: drawings from the collections of Denis Mahon and the Ashmolean Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1986
p. 12

Roli, Renato, G.F. Barbieri: Guercino, Milan, Aldo Martello Editore, 1972
p. 26
pl. 38

Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591-1666): Catalogo critico dei disegni, Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, 1968, 1969
cat. no. 118
pp. 31, 33 note 12, 116-18
pl. 118

I disegni del Guercino della collezione Mahon, Pinacoteca Communale, Cento, 1967
p. 39

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 76

Drawings of the old masters from the Witt Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1943
p. 24 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: none.

Inscription: none.

Collector's mark: Verso (recorded in the file): lower right corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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