The Return of the Prodigal Son

Barbieri Giovan Francesco called Guercino

(Cento 1591 - Bologna 1666)

The painting, from the Lancellotti collection, was purchased in 1818 by Camillo Borghese to enhance his family collection, partially lost during the French occupation. The subject – the return of the prodigal son – is from the New Testament (Luke 15: 11-32), which tells the story of an old man who forgives and welcomes the younger son, after he has squandered his share of the inheritance. In fact, the scene emphasises the theme of the domestic intimacy to which the fatherly gesture of the wise parent alludes. With one hand he grasps the shoulder of the boy, portrayed as he strips off the old clothes to put on the clean ones brought by a servant on the left. There is also a dog to welcome him, a symbol of loyalty and mercy.

Object details

Commentary

The painting became part of the Borghese Collection in 1818, as is shown by a payment receipt discovered by Giovanni Piancastelli in the papers of the Borghese Archive and published by Paola della Pergola in 1959 (p. 226, no. 100). This crucial document attests to the purchase of the work by Camillo Borghese, who through his mediator Ignazio Grossi obtained five works from Prince Orazio Lancellotti for a total of 3,000 scudi. The provenance of the painting from Lancellotti’s collection is further proved by both an engraving by Domenico Cunego, dating to 1770, which contains the phrase Romae ex Tabula in Aedibus Lancellotti (Hamilton 1773, pl. 37), and a drawing by Francesco Caucig made between 1781 and 1787 (Vienna, Kupferstichkabinett, inv. no. 976).

Taking this information into account as well as the fact that Guercino worked in Rome for Tiberio Lancellotti, in 1968 Sir Denis Mahon dated the execution of this canvas to 1627-28 (Mahon 1968, pp. 147, 151, no. 61), an opinion which all critics have accepted. According to this scholar, this date in fact corresponds to the scenes painted in 1627 on the walls of the cathedral of Piacenza, where one notes the same static character of composition that lends a certain sereneness and balance to the work in question: this effect is particularly apparent in the rendering of the figures and the use of colour.

Guercino chose the theme of this painting – the return of the Prodigal Son – many times during his career: as a young man, he painted two such works in 1618 and 1619 for Cardinals Ludovico Ludovisi and Giacomo Serra, respectively, while in his mature years he repeated the subject for Taddeo Barberini (1642), Don Gregorio Maffoni (1642), the Venetian Giovanni Nane (1651) and Archbishop Girolamo Boncompagni (1654). In the case of the last-named painting, the archbishop gave it to Prince Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna. One of the many versions of this theme by Guercino is a work mentioned in the Borghese Collection in 1693 (Inv. 1693, room III, no. 120; Inv. 1700, room III; Inv. 1790, room III, no. 5), which was sold in 1801 to a French intermediary, a certain Durand. Finally, another variation with only two figures – which was previously in the Hercolani Collection – was purchased by Marcantonio Borghese in 1870 to be placed in the castle in Nettuno.

  Antonio Iommelli