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Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino

A Young Man with an Owl on a Stick, ca. 1630s

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino, 1591-1666, Italian

Title

A Young Man with an Owl on a Stick

Year

ca. 1630s

Medium

Pen and ink with scraped brush and wash on laid paper

Materials/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."

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Drawings and Watercolors

Credit

Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund

Object Number

2015.85

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer

March 12 - September 4, 2022

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.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is A Young Man with an Owl on a Stick with the accession number of 2015.85. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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