Tradition has it that Guercino was largely self-taught, not having been affiliated to a painter of renown before his short collaboration with the local artist Benedetto Gennari the Elder. He then was influenced by Emilian painters such as Scarsellino or Carlo Bononi and especially Ludovico Carracci whose works he studied during a special trip to Bologna (2) . Guercino usually produced a large number of preparatory studies for every picture or large-scale decoration of any importance. These drawings range from very rapid sketches made to clarify his first ideas to more finished studies. The present sheet undoubtedly belongs to the first range of rapid drawings and illustrates the complex process behind the creation of his paintings. Guercino did not use to give away his drawings as it was the trend during this period. He tended to keep them all in order to create a repertory of figural poses and compositional ideas that would inspire other motifs. The angel of the present sheet for instance can be found again, with little differences, in other compositions such as Saint Sebastian being succoured by two angels, now in Sudeley Castle, or in the 1627 Annunciation to the Shepherds, part of the cycle of the frescoes in the Cathedral of Piacenza.

These two drawings are particularly impressive for the virtuoso of their execution and the modernity of the Virgin’s face designed without any outlines.

1) Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina pittrice: Vite de’ pittori bolognesi, Bologna: 1678, vol. II, p. 363.
2) See Nicholas Turner and Carol Plazzotta, Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, London: 1991, pp. 14-15.