Mars
Guercino (Cento 1591 – Bologna 1666)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1620 - 1629
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1618 x 1401 x 164 mm
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Tatton Park, Cheshire
NT 1298169
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Mars by Guercino (Cento 1591 – Bologna 1666), 1620s. A warrior, half-length in armour and helmet, his sword raised in his right hand, looking towards the right, holding a long-stalked, white umbelliferous plant - hemlock? - in his left hand. The same model appears in comparable portraits at Berlin and at Apsley House.
Provenance
Possibly in 'A Catalogue of Pictures from Colonna Borghese and Corsini Palaces, &c. &c. purchased in Rome in the years 1799 and 1800 on sale by private contract at no.118 Pall Mall, late the Milton Gallery' and acquired by William Young Ottley (1771-1836); his sale January 1801, no 41 as 'Guercino. A Warrior in Armour; said to be 'Scanderberg. Breadth, 3 f. 5 in. Height, 3 f. 11 in' and Ottley sale Christie's , 25 May, 1811, lot 84 as 'Guercion. A man in Armour supposed to be intended to represent the celebrated Scanderberg...From the Albani Palace in Rome and from whom possibly bought by Wilbraham Egerton (with the title Portrait of George Castriot whom the Mahammedans call Scanderberg (1403 -1468); bequeathed by Maurice Egerton, 4th Baron Egerton of Tatton (1874 - 1958) to the National Trust with the house, gardens and contents of Tatton Park
Credit line
Tatton Park, The Egerton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Guercino (Cento 1591 – Bologna 1666) , artist
References
Borea 1975 Evelina Borea, Pittori Bolognese del Seicento nelle Gallerie di Firenze, 1975, under no. 148, p. 200 Salerno 1988 Luigi Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome, 1988, under no. 123, p. 217 Mahon & Turner 1989 Denis Mahon and Nicholas Turner, The drawings of Guercino in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge, 1985, under no, 66, pp. 86-87