GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI CALLED IL GUERCINO
Cento, 1591 – Bologna, 1666
The Elders
oil on canvas, cm 120,5×100
date: 1617-1618
According to the expert opinion of Nicholas Turner, our canvas is a preparatory bozzettone (trial version) made by Guercino for the painting Susanna and the Elders (Book of Daniel 13:1–64), now in the Museo del Prado, commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, later Pope Gregory XV, between 1617 and 1618. This canvas, painted together with three others (Lot and His Daughters, The Resurrection of Tabitha and The Return of the Prodigal Son), also for the cardinal, later came into the possession of Niccolò Ludovisi, his nephew, who decided to bequeath it to Philip IV of Spain.
Bozzettoni, full-scale painted sketches, served as preparatory models and were generally traced out on oiled paper to be transferred to the canvas support later. They not only served as an outline, but also allowed the painter to develop further modifications and variants in the course of the work, before the final canvas was painted.
It is likely that Guercino had prepared two separate trial versions for the Prado painting for the different groups of characters, one for the nude of Susanna and one for the elders, making adjustments during the creative process, which was also a distinctive feature of his modus operandi as a draughtsman.
By virtually superimposing our sketch over the Prado painting, we note not only that the measurements of our canvas match the portion depicting the elders in the original painting, but also the various small corrections to the shape and outline of the two characters.
Studying these subtle but revealing differences shows how Guercino’s work was an evolving process and how the preparatory drawing was fundamentally conceived as a fluid and non-definitive medium, so much so that it could be constantly questioned by the artist.