Guercino, Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph, c.1620
Guercino, Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph, c.1620. Image, National Gallery of Ireland.

Press release 9/3/2018

Guercino: Journey of a Masterpiece 
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
14 March - 27 May 2018
Free admission

An exhibition charting the conservation of the Italian painting Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph (c.1620), by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666), known as Guercino, is on display from 14 March to 27 May 2018. The curators of the exhibition are Simone Mancini, Head of Conservation, and Adrian Le Harivel, Curator of British Art, National Gallery of Ireland. The exhibition celebrates the journey of a baroque masterpiece which, over its lifetime, moved from Italy via Spain, and the UK to Paris, to become the first old master painting to be purchased by Sir Denis Mahon (1910-2011), one of the most important art historians and collectors of the twentieth century.

Admired by popes and Medicis, but neglected for almost three centuries, Guercino became Sir Denis’s research focus in the 1930s. While on a study trip to Paris in 1934, Mahon recalled being ‘electrified' to discover the painting in an art dealer's window in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Sir Denis presented Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph to the British Fund for the National Gallery of Ireland in 2008. In 2016 it journeyed once more - to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. 

In 2016 the National Gallery of Ireland partnered with the J. Paul Getty Museum to conserve the painting. Curators, scientists and conservators worked collaboratively for nineteen months in the Getty Museum’s painting conservation studio. To celebrate its return to Ireland in March 2018, the painting will take centre stage in an exhibition detailing the technical research and challenges of the project. Visitors to Guercino: Journey of a Masterpiece can see the fully restored painting, alongside information on its subject and history, and details of the conservation process. New insights into the painting will be revealed, including Guercino’s drawing techniques, his use of precious pigments, and his practice of preparing two priming layers. 

Adrian Le Harivel, co-curator of the exhibition, says: 'This powerful, early painting by Guercino shows an awareness of Caravaggio in the gestures of the figures, dramatic lighting and handling of the paint surface. He later adopted a more classical style, with which people are generally more familiar'. 

Grime, old retouchings and discoloured varnish were cleaned from the canvas, revealing brighter colours and details such as strands of Ephraim’s hair. The scale and complexity of the work required many analytical techniques, including X-radiography, spectroscopy and ultraviolet imaging. 

Sir Denis Mahon’s re-appraisal of Guercino has ensured that he is now considered one of the leading artists of the Italian seicento. This is documented in detail in Sir Denis Mahon’s Library and Archive, gifted to the National Gallery of Ireland in 2010. Fascinating material from this archive will complement the display, including the original cheque, for £120, used to purchase the painting, and Mahon’s handwritten notes on its provenance. 

The Gallery acknowledges the Paintings Council of the Getty Museum's generous support of the Guercino project. Established in 2002, the Council’s mission has been to provide support for the study and restoration of major works of art from an international array of museums and cultural institutions such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, and the National Museum in Warsaw. The National Gallery of Ireland’s Preparations to Celebrate the Birth of the Dauphin of France in the Piazza Navona, by Giovanni Paolo Panini (c.1692-1765), will soon go on loan to an exhibition, organised by the J. Paul Getty Museum, at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Gallery hopes to continue the relationship with the J. Paul Getty Museum and is discussing a number of projects and loans. 

After the exhibition closes, Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph will go on display in the same room as Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ, on indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Ireland from the Jesuit Community, Leeson St, Dublin.  

Notes to Editors

Conservation project
The conservation treatment of Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph at the J. Paul Getty Museum began with scientific analysis to check its condition and learn about Guercino’s materials, technique, and original intentions. Grime, old retouchings and discoloured varnish were cleaned from the canvas, revealing brighter colours and details such as strands of Ephraim’s hair. A major challenge was re-creating larger areas of missing paint, such as that on Ephraim’s head. Old copies and prints after the painting served as useful guides. 

The scale and complexity of the work required many analytical techniques, including X-radiography, spectroscopy and ultraviolet imaging. Researchers took tiny samples from the edges of existing damages to identify the individual layers that Guercino applied to build up the painting. The results showed that he prepared his canvas by first applying two ground, or priming, layers, tinted red with iron earth pigments and clay minerals, along with small amounts of lead white and carbon black. This provided a smooth and absorbent surface on which to paint, and a rich, warm undertone. Guercino also used the red colour of the ground as a mid-tone in the composition, most notably in Jacob’s head and beard.

Analysis of the sky in the painting revealed the presence of natural ultramarine, made from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli – one of the most expensive pigments available at the time. This thin, pure ultramarine layer was applied directly on top of a thicker blue under-layer, composed of azurite and ultramarine. Azurite, a less costly pigment, may have been added to economise materials, or perhaps to exploit subtle colour differences.

The painting
In this scene from Genesis (48:14), Guercino focused on a fleeting but significant instant when Jacob crossed his hands to bless Manessah, the younger son of his grandson Joseph, rather than the elder brother Ephraim - an unexpected sign of preference that usually would have been granted to the older son. Jacob then prophesied that Manessah would be the greater of the two boys. Joseph, alarmed at his father’s deviation, is shown reaching for Jacob’s arm in protest. Guercino developed this powerful composition in rapidly executed preparatory drawings. The painting demonstrates his ability to convey tension and emotion in his figures’ gestures and facial expressions. In this superb example of the artist’s style prior to his arrival in Rome, Guercino employed a sombre palette, dynamic interplay between shadow and light, and robust, three-dimensional figures to convey the intensity of the subject. 

Provenance
Guercino’s Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph was painted in 1620 for Cardinal Jacopo Serra, Papal Legate in Ferrara, who also commissioned four other large paintings with biblical subjects. In 1623 Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph passed to his successor Cardinal Guido Sacchetti. Two decades later he gave it to Don Juan Alfonso Enríquez de Cabrera, former Viceroy of Naples and Spanish envoy to Pope Innocent X. His son bequeathed the painting, in 1691, to the church of San Pascual Bailon in Madrid. Manuel Godoy, First Minister of Spain, acquired it about 1803, but sold it again after his fall from power in 1808. By 1843, Guercino’s painting belonged to John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick, at Thirlestane House, Gloucestershire. It was included in his posthumous sale of 1859. The German art historian Hermann Voss rediscovered it in Paris in 1932. Two years later Denis Mahon purchased the work from Galerie Alice Manteau in Paris for £120. Sir Denis presented Guercino’s painting to the British Fund for the National Gallery of Ireland in 2008. 

Guercino
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591–1666), also known as Guercino, or, ‘squinter’, was born in Cento, between Ferrara and Bologna. Largely self-taught, he initially followed the work of the Bolognese master Ludovico Carracci (1555–1619). Early admirers of Guercino’s work included Cosimo II de’Medici. Another key patron during the artist’s early period was Cardinal Jacopo Serra, Papal Legate of Ferrara. Guercino painted five major biblical works for him during 1619-1620, including Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph. In 1621-3, Guercino worked on an important papal commission in Rome. Moving back to Bologna around 1642, he took over the studio of his rival Guido Reni (1575–1642) and became the city’s leading artist. During Guercino’s later career, he painted in a more classicising style. On his death he left around 400 paintings and over 1,000 drawings. The National Gallery of Ireland’s collection includes three paintings and three drawings by the artist. 

Sir Denis Mahon (1910–2011)
Sir Denis Mahon is regarded as one of the most important art historians and collectors of the twentieth century. Born in London, of Irish descent, his studies in art history led him to focus on the Italian baroque period. Sir Denis started collecting art in the 1930s and Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph by Guercino was the first old master painting that he purchased. While on a study trip to Paris in 1934, Mahon recalled being ‘electrified to discover’ the painting in the window of an art dealer in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Mahon’s re-appraisal of Guercino in writings and exhibitions has ensured that he is now considered one of the leading artists of the Italian seicento. This is documented in detail in Sir Denis Mahon’s Library and Archive, gifted to the National Gallery of Ireland in 2010.