Mars with Cupid

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino) (Italian, b.1591, d.1666), painter

1649

Bologna/Italy

oil on canvas

69 9/16 x 91 in. (176.8 x 233.7 cm)

Painting

European Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings

The Edwin and Virginia Irwin Memorial

General Baron Mattei, Bologna, commissioned in 1649 [1]; Mattei di Paganica collection, by 1721; J.H Bell [sold at Sotheby's London, June 29,1960, lot 97 (as Achilles in his Tent, A View of the Battle of Troy in the Distance), bought by [2]:] [T. Agnew & Sons, London, June 29, 1960-February 1970, when sold, attributed to Gennari, to:] [Pawsey and Payne, London, from February 1970] [Peter Twining, London, until June 1, 1973, sold in his sale, Christie's London, June 1, 1973, lot 53 (as Guercino, Achilles in his Tent), bought for 1300 guineas by :] [Heim Gallery, London, by 1972 to 1977, when acquired by the CAM.] Notes: [1] Mattei commissioned the painting, along with its now lost pendant, in 1649. See C. C. Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, II, Bologna, 1841 (reprint of 1678 edition), pp 329-330. [2] Although no documentation indicating the painting's provenance between 1721 and 1960 has yet come to light, A. S. Ciechanowiecki of the Heim Gallery noted in a May 17, 1977, letter to the CAM that, judging by the frame the painting was in at the time of the Heim Gallery's purchase in 1973, it must have been in England by the mid-nineteenth century.

1977.96