Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), Fra Bonaventura Bisi, 1658-1659. Oil on canvas, 37 × 30 1/8 in. (94 × 76.5 cm).

SARASOTA, FLA.- The Ringling in Sarasota, Florida, has purchased a major portrait by Italian Baroque artist Giovanna Francesco Barbieri, better known as Guercino. Purchased at auction from Christie’s, Portrait of Fra’ Bonaventura Bisi, called “Il Pittorino,” is a 30.25 x 37-inch oil on canvas that dates to 1658-59. The painting is now on view at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in galleries custom designed in the 1920s to highlight the renowned European collection amassed by the couple. The portrait complements an important work by Guercino, The Annunciation, which was purchased by John Ringling. 

Guercino (1591-1666), who was born in Cento, near Bologna and Ferrara, moved to Rome for commissions in 1621 and eventually back to Bologna in 1642. Inventive and prolific, Guercino – alongside Caravaggio, Guido Reni and Annibale and Ludovico Carracci – was one of the most influential painters of his time. 

“This intimate portrait from the Italian Baroque is a wonderful addition to The Ringling’s established strength in European Old Masters and is installed near other magnificent paintings in the collection, including works by Rubens, Van Dyke and Velasquez,” said Steven High, Executive Director of The Ringling. “It is rare for such an excellent example of European Baroque portraiture to become available, and thanks to our acquisitions endowment, we are able to share it and allow everyone to experience its visual brilliance and cultural relevance.” 

A fellow artist and friend of Guercino’s, Bisi was a Franciscan friar at a convent in Bologna. The naturalistic and insightful rendering of the friar near the end of his life is typical of Guercino’s later expressive style and virtuoso technique. In the half-figure canvas, Bisi appears in his study holding a drawing of his patron, Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena. 

Portrait of Fra’ Bonaventura Bisi, called “Il Pittorino,” was most likely a gift from the artist to Bisi, and subsequently became part of the Count Ulisse Aldrovandi collection in Bologna in the 18th or 19th century, before being acquired by an anonymous distinguished private collector in 1992.

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna), Portrait of Fra Bonaventura Bisi (1601-1659), called Il Pittorino, half-length, holding a drawing of Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena, oil on canvas, 37 ¼ x 30 1/8 in. (94.4 x 76.4 cm). Sold for GBP 110,500 at Christie's London, 9 December 2015, lot 168.