Painting St. Thomas the Apostle by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (il Guercino) and His Workshops in the Collection of Bishop Kokša

Abstract

The artist’s book of accounts testifies to the commissions of works from the Bolognese painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as il Guercino, where on August 9, 1632, an advance payment for the commission of the painting ”St. Thomas the Apostle in half-figure, for Mr. Colonel from Bologna”. For many years, the painting was considered lost, and then in the last ten years, two were published, to which we also add the third, from the collection of Bishop Kokša in Zagreb. For the attributive determination of the Zagreb painting, it is important to take into account the work in Guercino’s family workshop, whose members, in addition to the usual assistance to the artist, also made workshop replicas of works in demand on the market.

Keywords

• Guercino
• workshop
• St. Thomas the Apostle
• collection of Bishop Đuro Kokša