Reinventing Guercino: Prints, Pedagogy and the Role of Imitation Restricted; Files Only
Schrimsher, Kimberly (Spring 2022)
Published
Abstract
The printed drawing book emerged in Italy at the turn of the seventeenth century and painters such as Giovanni Battista Barbieri (1591–1666), or Guercino, embraced the genre. By 1638 Guercino had published two versions of his own engraved by Oliviero Gatti and Francesco Curti, respectively. Guercino’s manuals differ from those by his contemporaries because they present a curated selection of useful subjects for an aspiring painter to copy rather than haphazardly-arranged figural studies. Past assessments of Guercino’s drawing books often discuss them in isolation and focus more on the first publication. Yet, seicento viewers saw the two manuals as intimately connected as evidenced by the afterlives of Guercino’s drawings books and their subsequent republications in four countries.
When considered together, the drawing books reveal that Guercino’s approach to painting remained consistent throughout his career despite the painter’s stylistic transformation during the late 1620s. They further demonstrate that Guercino relied on a visual vocabulary in the creation of his canvases that was simultaneously imitative and innovative. In order to produce these drawing books, Guercino reflected on the act of making, and I will argue that the books not only teach viewers how to imitate the master but how to become an artist in their own right. The printed drawing books ultimately provide the framework for how to approach and understand Guercino’s early and late paintings.
Table of Contents
Abstract
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Introduction……………………………………………………..……1
Chapter One. Pedagogy in Print: Guercino’s First
Printed Drawing Book………………………………………………33
Chapter Two. The Labors of Drawing: The Second
Printed Drawing Book……………………………………………....68
Chapter Three. Prints in Practice: Imitation as
Innovation…………………………………………………………...95
Chapter Four. Beyond Guercino: Subsequent Editions
of the Printed Drawing Books……………………………………..127
Conclusion…………………………………………………………161
Bibliography……………………………………………………….165
Illustrations…………………………………………………….…..179
Appendix A………………………………………………………...322
Appendix B………………………………………………………...328
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File download under embargo until 26 May 2028 | 2022-04-07 11:38:58 -0400 | File download under embargo until 26 May 2028 |
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