Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino

A painting of this subject is recorded in Guercino's Libro dei conti under the date, October 3, 1654: "Dal Ill:^mo Coreggio si e riceuto Ducatoni n:^o 120. per pagamento di due, Meze Figure Cioue S: Sebastiano et Sufonisba e questi, Sono State Vnga:^ri n:^o 72. che Fano Scudi n:^o 153 - fano L 612".¹  These paintings, also mentioned by Malvasia, have been identified as the Saint Sebastian in the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico, and the Sophonisba in the Mainetti collection, Rome, although the latter is at least 10 cm. larger in height and width than the Saint Sebastian.² The fact that the Mainetti picture differs in size from the Ponce Saint Sebastian and that the present painting is compositionally more satisfactory as a pendant to it, would both suggest that it is the present work which is more likely to be identifiable with the Sophonisba listed in the Libro dei Conti. Further supporting this theory is the fact that, for stylistic reasons, a date of execution around 1654 seems highly plausible for this Sophonisba. The female type, color palette and draped curtain have much in common with the pair of Old Testament scenes of Joseph and Potiphar's wife and Amnon and Tamar in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, both datable to 1649.³  Sophonisba's right hand reappears, in almost exactly the same position but holding an astrolobe instead of a cup, in Guercino's Allegorical figure of Astrology in the Huntington Art Museum, Austin (Texas), datable to the first half of the 1650s.⁴

A drawing by Guercino of a bust-length female in profile, in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Uffizi, Florence (Witt Library Mount), appears to have formed the basis of the design for the figure of Sophonisba here. Another drawing by Guercino, showing Sophonisba drinking from a cup, in which her head is also in profile but the pose of her body is entirely different, is in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.⁵ The position of Sophonisba's right hand, holding the cup, is very close to that in the present composition and it is quite possible that it represents a first idea for the painting's design.

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for endorsing the attribution to Guercino upon firsthand inspection of the painting and for suggesting that it is a mature work by the artist, dating from the 1650s.

1  See B. Ghelfi ed., under Literature, p. 166, no. 485.
2  Saint Sebastian measures 90 by 72.5 cm.; see L. Salerno, I Dipinti di Guercino, p. 411, cat. no. 357, reproduced. The Sophonisba in the Mainetti collection, which measures 105.5 by 84.5 cm., was identified by Sir Denis Mahon and cited in Ghelfi, op. cit., p. 166, footnote 485.
3  See Salerno, op. cit., pp. 332-33, cat. nos. 261 and 262, reproduced in color.
4 Ibid., p. 365, cat. no. 297, reproduced. The painting was paid for in 1658 but was described as "fatta gli anni passati" (painted in previous years) and Sir Denis Mahon has dated the work to circa 1650-55.
5  See G. Bora, I disegni del Codice Resta, Bologna 1976, p. 206, cat. no. 225, reproduced in color.