The Return of the Prodigal Son

Artist: Guercino
Title: The Return of the Prodigal Son
Date: 1654-55
Culture: Italian
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 155.6 x 146.1 cm (61-1/4 x 57-1/2 in.)
Accession Number: 1983:002
Credit Line: Guercino, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1654-55, oil on canvas, 155.6 x 146.1 cm (61-1/4 x 57-1/2 in.), Putnam Foundation, Timken Museum of Art.

Description

The parable depicted by Il Guercino (a nickname meaning "squint-eyed") is the one most frequently represented in Western art for teaching

repentance and forgiveness. Taken from Luke 15:11- 32, the story tells of a younger son who squanders his sh are of the family's estate and returns home to beg his father's forgiveness. Guercino shows the moment when the impoverished son is welcomed with compassion by his father. He sends a servant to bring fine clothes for his penitent son and to kill a fatted calf for a feast. Guercino painted the subject on seven different occasions, beginning in 1619. Like other late works by the artist, this one is characterized by its clarity and simplicity.

Related Information / Media

Provenance

Archbishop Girolamo Boncompagni; The princes Colonna; The marquis of Landsdowne, his sale, Christie’s, London, March 7, 1930, lot 443; Private collection; Matthiesen Fine Art, London, 1981; Acquired by the Putnam Foundation, 1983

Exhibited

London, Matthiesen Gallery, 1981,lmportant Italian Baroque Paintings, 16oo-17oo, pp.74-77, no. 27, ill.; Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, 1991, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri,II Guercino,1591-1666, pp. 370-71,110.143, ill.; Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle,1991-92, Giovanni Francesco

Barbieri, II Guercino, 1591-1666, pp. 328-29, no. 77, ill.; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, 1992, Guercino, Master Painter of tlte Baroque, pp. 85, 298, no. 53, ill.

Literature

Colonna Inventory of 1714, Rome, Colonna Archives; Catalogo dei Quadri,e Pitture esistenti nel Palazzo dell'Eccellentissima Casa Colonna a Roma (Rome, 1783), p. 29, no. 178; F. W. B. von Ramdoh1 Ueber Mahlerei un d Bildhauerarbeit in Rom, 3 vols. (Leipzig, :q87), 2:80-81-7; C. C. Malvasia, Felsina pitfrice:Vite de' pittori bolog11esi, 2 vols. (Bologna, 184:1), val. 2, pt. 4, p. 270; ibid., val. 2, pt. 4, Libra dei conti,

April1.6,1.66o, p. 340; Mrs. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London (London, 1844), p. 303, no.21.; G. F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols. (London, 1854), 2:152; L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino (Rome, 1988), p.377, no. 310.

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Note

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Collection