Jana Zapletalová

A New Guercino: Copy or Replica?

In the chapel dedicated to St Wenceslas in the château in Náměšť nad Oslavou has been preserved a large painting depicting St Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin. The identity of the painter has so far not been determined. The work is associated with the name of the Bolognese painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Il Guercino (1591-1666), one of the most important representatives of Bolognese 'seicento' painting. In the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City there is another painting with an identical subject and execution. However, in comparison with the painting in Náměšť it has been subsequently reduced in size. The painting in Náměšť has been placed in an interesting context by an entry in Guercino's account book, revealing that Ferdinand Count Verdenberg (1625-1666), the owner of the Náměšť estate and a leading representative of the Austrian nobility, commissioned and in March 1657 paid for two original paintings from the Bolognese master: Galatea and Venus with Mars, Cupid and Time. The same information, with the additional remark that Count Verdenberg intended both paintings as a gift for the Emperor, is also repeated by Carlo Cesare Malvasia in his Felsina pittrice, published in 1678. In this context the possibility cannot be excluded that the painting in Náměšť nad Oslavou, which is undoubtedly of high quality, although severely damaged, represents an original work by Guercino. Ferdinand Count Verdenberg undertook a journey to Rome in 1655. He would therefore have had the opportunity when travelling through Bologna to see Guercino's painting of St Luke, intended for the Franciscan church in Reggio nell'Emilia (Guercino received payment for this painting in February 1655) and to have a replica of it made - something that was not unusual with Guercino - or a copy of high quality by one of the painters from Guercino's workshop.

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