Editing Guercino (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Et-in-Arcadia-ego.jpg|thumb|left|The dramatic confrontation with mortality depicted in Guercino's [[Et in Arcadia ego (Guercino)|''Et in Arcadia ego'']] (c. 1618–1622) marks the first known usage of this Latin motto (inscribed on the plinth beneath the skull). ]]
[[File:Francesco_Barbieri.jpg|thumb| This contemporary portrait (1623) by [[Ottavio Leoni]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino – Ottavio Leoni |url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/22613/ |website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au |publisher=National Gallery of Victoria |access-date=12 February 2019 |language=en-AU}}</ref> highlights the lifelong squint (a [[Esotropia|form of strabismus]]) which prompted the name 'Guercino'.]]
[[File:Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) - Christ and the Woman of Samaria - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|[[Caravaggio]]'s influence is apparent in this canvas ''Christ and the Woman of Samaria '' (c. 1619–1620).]]
[[File:Guercino - The Persian Sibyl - Google Art Project.jpg|thumbnail|Guercino – ''The Persian Sibyl'' (1647–48)]]
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri was born into a family of [[peasant farmer]]s in [[Cento]], a town in the [[Po Valley]] mid-way between [[Bologna]] and [[Ferrara]].<ref name="Mahon1937a">Mahon, 1937a</ref> Being [[Strabismus|cross-eyed]], at an early age he acquired the nickname by which he is universally known, Guercino (a [[diminutive]] of the Italian noun {{lang|it|[[wikt:guercio|guercio]]}},  meaning 'squinter').<ref name="Oxford">Turner, 2003</ref> Mainly self-taught, at the age of 16, he worked as apprentice in the shop of [[Benedetto Gennari]], a painter of the [[Bolognese School (painting)|Bolognese School]].<ref>Griswold 1991, p. 6</ref> An early commission was for the decoration with frescoes (1615–1616<ref>{{cite web |title=Casa Pannini di Cento |url=https://www.geoplan.it/luoghi-interesse-italia/monumenti-provincia-ferrara/cartina-monumenti-cento/monumenti-cento-casa-pannini.htm |website=www.geoplan.it |access-date=8 February 2019 |language=it}}</ref>) of Casa Pannini in Cento, where the [[Realism (arts)|naturalism]] of his [[Landscape painting#17th and 18th centuries|landscape]]s already reveals considerable artistic independence, as do his landscapes on canvas ''[[Moonlit Landscape]]'' and ''[[Country Concert]]'' from the same era.<ref>Stone, pp. 3, 37.</ref> In Bologna, he won the praise of [[Ludovico Carracci]]. He always acknowledged that his early style had been influenced by study of a Madonna painted by Ludovico Carracci for the Capuchin church in Cento, affectionately known as "La Carraccina".<ref>{{cite web |title=La Carraccina |url=http://bbcc.ibc.regione.emilia-romagna.it/pater/loadcard.do?id_card=164519 |website=bbcc.ibc.regione.emilia-romagna.it |publisher=Regione Emilia Romagna |access-date=9 February 2019 |language=it}}</ref>

''[[William of Gellone|St William]] Receiving the Monastic Habit'' (1620, [[Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna]], Italy),<ref>{{cite web |title=San Guglielmo d'Aquitania riceve l'abito religioso da San Felice Vescovo. (Vestizione di San Guglielmo) |url=http://www.pinacotecabologna.beniculturali.it/it/content_page/40-sala-26-il-classicismo/52-san-guglielmo-d-aquitania-riceve-l-abito-religioso-da-san-felice-vescovo-br-vestizione-di-san-guglielmo.html |website=www.pinacotecabologna.beniculturali.it |access-date=13 February 2019 |language=it-it |archive-date=9 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809150109/http://www.pinacotecabologna.beniculturali.it/it/content_page/40-sala-26-il-classicismo/52-san-guglielmo-d-aquitania-riceve-l-abito-religioso-da-san-felice-vescovo-br-vestizione-di-san-guglielmo.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> painted for [[Santi Gregorio e Siro]] in Bologna, was Guercino's largest ecclesiastical commission at the time and is considered a high point of his early career.<ref name="Oxford"/>

His painting ''[[Et in Arcadia ego (Guercino)|Et in Arcadia ego]]'' from around 1618–1622 contains the first known usage anywhere of the Latin motto, [[Et in Arcadia ego (Poussin)|later taken up]] by [[Poussin]] and others, signifying that [[Memento mori|death lurks]] even in the most [[Arcadia (utopia)|idyllic setting]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lubbock |first1=Tom |title=Guercino: Et in Arcadia Ego (1618–22) |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/guercino-et-in-arcadia-ego-1618-22-744410.html |access-date=7 February 2019 |work=The Independent |date=23 February 2007 |language=en}}</ref>  The dramatic composition of this canvas (related to his ''Flaying of [[Marsyas]] by Apollo'' (1617–1618<ref>{{cite web |title=Palazzo Pitti: Galleria Palatina – Apollo e Marsia |url=http://www.abcfirenze.com/GalleriaFotografica.asp?tipo=U&RicM=309&Foto=GalleriaPalatina-D35.jpg |website=www.abcfirenze.com |language=it |access-date=2019-02-09 |archive-date=2023-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329110135/http://www.abcfirenze.com/GalleriaFotografica.asp?tipo=U&RicM=309&Foto=GalleriaPalatina-D35.jpg |url-status=dead }}</ref>) created for [[Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany]], which shares the same pair of shepherds<ref>{{cite web |title=Et in Arcadia Ego by Guercino |url=https://www.wga.hu/html_m/g/guercino/0/arcadia.html |website=www.wga.hu |publisher=Web Gallery of Art |access-date=8 February 2019}}</ref>) is typical of Guercino's early works, which are often tumultuous in conception.<ref>Griswold 1991, p. 13</ref> He painted two large canvases, ''[[Samson]] Seized by Philistines'' (1619) and ''[[Elijah]] Fed by Ravens'' (1620), for Cardinal [[Giacomo Serra (cardinal)|Giacomo Serra]], a Papal Legate to [[Ferrara]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Samson Captured by the Philistines |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436603 |website=www.metmuseum.org |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=8 February 2019}}</ref><ref name="Vivian1971">Vivian, 1971</ref> Painted at a time when it is unlikely that Guercino could have seen [[Caravaggio]]'s work in Rome, these works nevertheless display a starkly naturalistic Caravaggesque style.