GUERCI'NO (properly GIOVANNI FRANCES() BARBIERI), was born in the year 1590 at Cento, a village near Bologna, belonging to the province of Fercara. He gave very early proof of his talents by painting the figure of the Virgin' on the front of his father's house when he was only ten years of age. He studied under his countrymen Cremonini and Benedetto Gennari, and some accounts of him have adopted a tradition of his having been a pupil of the Carucci; but, not to mention other circumstances which render it improbable that he ever belonged to that school, it is observable that of three different manners which be successively adopted, no one bears any traces of the precepts of that celebrated academy. In his first style, which is the least known, he followed the manner of Michel Angelo da Caravaggio, with bright lights, deep shades, a yellowish tone of the flesh, producing a very powerful but not always natural effect. His second style, which is the best an cost esteemed, was formed on the results of his observation, the study of the Roman, Venetian, and Bolognese schools, by his connection with the most eminent scholars of the Caracci, and the personal friendship of Caravaggio. In this style he still retained the striking effects of light and shade in which he followed Caravaggio, but greatly excelled him in elegance and dignity of feature, especially in his female figures ; his men being, in general, little superior to the model he had before him. He established an academy at Ceuta iu 1616, well furnished with models and antiques, to which numerous disciples soon resorted, for whose improvement he showed the greatest solicited., and treated them with uniform kindness and Indulgence.
He frequently visited the principal cities of Italy, where he mat with ample employment, and as he designed and worked with great readi ness and facility, his productions were very numerous. His fixed place of residence however was Canto, where he remained till the death of his friend and competitor Guido Real, when ho removed to Bologna. The general applause which the public lavished on the works of Guido Induced him to adopt a third style, in which he endeavoured to attain the suavity of manner of that artist ; but though he sometimes suc ceeded, yet. on the whole his works in this third style are inferior to those of the second, being deficient in the stamp of originality, for the want of which no imitation, however suocessful, can compensate.
Gnercino died at Bologna in 1666, in the (seventy-sixth year of his age. Ile bore a high character for regular conduct, modesty, freedom from all petty jealousy, and generosity. He was well informed, agree able in conversation, and died unmarried, leaving a large property to his relations. His works are at Rome, Parma, Piacenza, Modena, and Reggio, and in most of the museums and cabinets of Enrope. A very good specimen of his best manner, Angels Weeping over the Dead Body of Christ,' is in the National Gallery.