Guercino

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (8 February 1591 – 22 December 1666), better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous naturalism of his early manner contrasts with the classical equilibrium of his later works. His many drawings are noted for their luminosity and lively style.

==Biography== 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). thumb| This contemporary portrait (1623) by Ottavio Leoni highlights the lifelong squint (a form of strabismus) which prompted the name 'Guercino'. thumb|left|Caravaggio's influence is apparent in this canvas Christ and the Woman of Samaria (c. 1619–1620). thumbnail|Guercino – The Persian Sibyl (1647–48) Giovanni Francesco Barbieri was born into a family of peasant farmers in Cento, a town in the Po Valley mid-way between Bologna and Ferrara. Being cross-eyed, at an early age he acquired the nickname by which he is universally known, Guercino (a diminutive of the Italian noun , meaning 'squinter'). Mainly self-taught, at the age of 16, he worked as apprentice in the shop of Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the Bolognese School. An early commission was for the decoration with frescoes (1615–1616) of Casa Pannini in Cento, where the naturalism of his landscapes already reveals considerable artistic independence, as do his landscapes on canvas Moonlit Landscape and Country Concert from the same era. 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".