Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino

A Young Man with an Owl on a Stick

Maker

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino (Italian, 1591-1666)

Title

A Young Man with an Owl on a Stick

Year

ca. 1630s

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

iron gall ink

Dimensions

Sheet: 22.5 x 15.5 cm (8 7/8 x 6 1/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Collector's stamp, lower right recto (unidentified). Inscribed "31" in a ciercle in graphite, lower left recto. Inscribed in ink, upper edge, verso, "B. del Guercino" and "L20."

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund

Object Number

2015.85

Type

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer
Four Hundred Years of Drawing from the RISD Museum
Mar 12, 2022 – Sep 04, 2022

Label copy

A young man in a bulbous hat is shown in profile, staring at an owl perched on top of his stick. He is probably a bird catcher about to hunt with a trained owl, a common activity in Italy in the 1600s. Poised between depiction and caricature, the drawing has a humorous undertone that also relies on a verbal pun: in Italian, “hunting with the owl” could also suggest flirting with a coy woman. Subtly humorous but enigmatic, this is one of many drawings Guercino made for his own amusement.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino (Italian, 1591-1666)
A Young Man with an Owl on a Stick, ca. 1630s
Pen and ink with scraped brush and wash on laid paper
Sheet: 22.5 x 15.5 cm (8 7/8 x 6 1/8 inches)
Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 2015.85

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.