Guercino Gallery

Erminia and the Shepherd, 1619-20. Creator: Guercino

Erminia and the Shepherd, 1619-20. The scene is taken from Torquato Tasso's epic poem, La Gerusalemme Liberata published in 1575. Erminia, a pagan princess in love with the crusader, Tancred, disguises herself in armour to follow him. She is chased from the Christian camp and flees to Arcadia where she meets an old shepherd weaving baskets. The reversal of gender roles was a popular theme amongst the playwrights of the period

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Landscape with a Man Leaning on a Bale, c. 1640. Creator: Guercino (Italian, 1591-1666)

Landscape with a Man Leaning on a Bale, c. 1640. The tradition of landscape as an independent subject in Italian art stretches back to the 1500s and was flourishing in the 1600s, when Guercino made this drawing. Guercino, however, rarely painted pure landscape, preferring to explore this genre in the more intimate medium of drawing. This sheet, with its fluid pen lines and unified composition enlivened by small figures, is a typical example of his ability to integrate picturesque motifs into an asymmetrical, balanced whole

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His head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel, mid 19th century. Creator

His head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel, mid 19th century. Biblical scene, from Matthew 14: 11: And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. The martyrdom by beheading of Saint John the Baptist: John was beheaded on the orders of Herod Antipas after the vengeful request of his step-daughter Salome and her mother Herodias. Engraving after Salome Receiving the Head of St. John the Baptist, a painting of 1637 by Guercino, in the Musee Des Beaux-Arts, Rennes, France

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