Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino

Count Giovanni Rasini;
European Private Collection

Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, 1591-1666, I Disegni (catalogue by Sir Denis Mahon), 1992, p. 308, no. 202, reproduced fig. 202

A. Morassi, Disegni antichi della collezione Rasini in Milano, 1937, p. 38, reproduced pl. XLII;
M. Marangoni, Guercino, Milan 1959, pp. 11-12, no. 9, reproduced pl. 9

Hinged only at the top corners. The drawing was once attached to an old mount, traces of discoloration are visible from the back. Some small bucking at the top and trace of an old fold to the right lower. Small light stains towards the margin and. Media strong and generally in good condition. Sold mounted and framed in a modern gilded wooden frame.
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The ritual depicted in this fascinating image remains obscure, as is usually the case with Guercino’s rare 'stregonerie' (scenes of witchcraft).  A young witch, half naked, intently burns some herbs, perhaps to revive the man laying on the floor just in front of her, while four long candles stand burning in the background, before a distant landscape.

This very handsome drawing, formerly in the Rasini Collection, is one of only a small number of depictions by Guercino of these picturesque subjects.  It is an early work which Sir Denis Mahon, writing in the 1992 exhibition catalogue, dated to around 1618-21.  Stylistically it shows the strong influence of Lodovico Carracci, in the fluent and talented use of the pen, enriched by a subtle and delicately applied wash.  Although Guercino never attended the Carracci Academy, founded in Bologna around 1582, he succeeded in carrying forward the lessons of the Carracci, learning from their example the secrets of a highly naturalistic and expressive style, which he developed into his own very personal manner. 

Another study by Guercino, also in pen and ink and wash, now in Turin, shows an old sorcerer with an open book, two small devils and a woman crying in the background, and seems to date from a similar moment or perhaps slightly later.¹  

^1. Turin, Biblioteca Reale, inv. no. 16116; A. Bertini, I Disegni Italiani della Biblioteca Reale di Torino, Rome 1958, p. 70, n. 573, reproduced fig. 573