09 Works, Today, February 8th. is artist Guercino’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #039

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 — December 22, 1666), better known as Guercino, was born into a family of peasant farmers in Cento. Being cross-eyed, at an early age he acquired the nickname by which he is universally known, Guercino, meaning ‘squinter’. Mainly self-taught, at the age of 16, he worked as apprentice in the shop of Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the Bolognese School. An early commission was for the decoration with frescos (1615–1616) of Casa Pannini in Cento, where the naturalism of his landscapes already reveals considerable artistic independence…

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