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GUERCINO (CENTO 1591-BOLOGNA 1666)

A composition study for The Burial and Reception into Heaven of St Petronilla

c.1621-23

RCIN 902756

In 1621 Guercino’s Bolognese patron Alessandro Ludovisi was elected Pope Gregory XV, and Guercino followed him to Rome. Gregory commissioned from Guercino a huge altarpiece, to be placed over the remains of St Petronilla in St Peter’s. The young artist must have prepared this model drawing for the approval of his patron; approval was evidently not forthcoming, for the altarpiece is very different in its composition.

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