ORThe Open Room
Digital gallery
Back to the NGA collection
Shown from the thighs up, a light-skinned man and woman gesture dramatically, partially covered only by colorful lengths of loosely draped fabric in this horizontal painting. To our left, the man stands with his lean, muscled body facing us but he turns his face to our right in profile to look at the woman with his chin dropped. His thick, dark hair is brushed back. He has a long, straight nose and his lips are parted. His left arm, on our right, is raised to shoulder height, elbow pointed out at the woman, and that hand is clenched in a fist in front of his chest. His other arm is slightly bent at his side, that hand also balled into a fist. A narrow, vivid cobalt-blue cloth winds and flutters around his body from behind him to our left, over the raised arm, and across his hips. To our right, the woman stands with her back to the man, and she looks back over her right shoulder. Her copper-red hair blows back from her face, lifting off her shoulders. She has light brown eyes under lowered brows, and the corners of her pink lips are pulled slightly down. She wears a teardrop-shaped pearl earring from the ear we can see and a headdress wrapped with more pearls at the back of her head. Her body is pale, soft, and rounded. Her arms bend at the elbows to cross in an X-shape in front of her bare breasts. With her left hand, closer to the man, she points an index finger at him. Around her body swirl two layers of satiny draperies, the outer one a honey orange, and an inner layer in dusty pink. Both people are lit from our right brightly enough to create deep shadows. Behind them, a bed at hip height has ivory-colored linens and a dark green drapery hanging to each side. The space recedes into darkness beyond the bed, contrasting with the brightness of the people.
Read the visual description

Shown from the thighs up, a light-skinned man and woman gesture dramatically, partially covered only by colorful lengths of loosely draped fabric in this horizontal painting. To our left, the man stands with his lean, muscled body facing us but he turns his face to our right in profile to look at the woman with his chin dropped. His thick, dark hair is brushed back. He has a long, straight nose and his lips are parted. His left arm, on our right, is raised to shoulder height, elbow pointed out at the woman, and that hand is clenched in a fist in front of his chest. His other arm is slightly bent at his side, that hand also balled into a fist. A narrow, vivid cobalt-blue cloth winds and flutters around his body from behind him to our left, over the raised arm, and across his hips. To our right, the woman stands with her back to the man, and she looks back over her right shoulder. Her copper-red hair blows back from her face, lifting off her shoulders. She has light brown eyes under lowered brows, and the corners of her pink lips are pulled slightly down. She wears a teardrop-shaped pearl earring from the ear we can see and a headdress wrapped with more pearls at the back of her head. Her body is pale, soft, and rounded. Her arms bend at the elbows to cross in an X-shape in front of her bare breasts. With her left hand, closer to the man, she points an index finger at him. Around her body swirl two layers of satiny draperies, the outer one a honey orange, and an inner layer in dusty pink. Both people are lit from our right brightly enough to create deep shadows. Behind them, a bed at hip height has ivory-colored linens and a dark green drapery hanging to each side. The space recedes into darkness beyond the bed, contrasting with the brightness of the people.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Amnon and Tamar

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino

Date
1649-1650
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 123 x 158.5 cm (48 7/16 x 62 3/8 in.) framed: 148.1 x 186.4 x 10.2 cm (58 5/16 x 73 3/8 x 4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1986.17.1
Credit line
Patrons' Permanent Fund
Time span
1601 to 1650
Department
CIS-B
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • Baroque
  • Old Testament
  • religious
  • Bolognese
  • Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
  • Amnon
  • Tamar
Provenance

Commissioned by Aurelio Zaneletti [or Zanoletti] of Reggio in 1649.[1] (Samuel Woodburn, 1820-1823).[2] Charles Stewart, 3d marquess of Londonderry [1778-1854], London, by 1833;[3] by descent to Alexander Charles Robert Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th marquess of Londonderry [b. 1937], Wynyard Park;[4] purchased 1986 by NGA. [1] This painting and NGA 1986.17.2 were produced by Guercino between 1649 and 1650. Zaneletti was a collector from Reggio Emilia, and the artist's account book records on 10 March 1649 a down payment of twenty-one _scudi_ by Zaneletti for a "quadro con due mezze figure." On 25 August of the same year Guercino recorded that he had received the final payment from Zaneletti of 150 _scudi_ for the finished painting of a "fuga di Gioseppe." An entry in the account book of 26 March 1650 records another payment of 150 _scudi_ from Zaneletti for a painting of Amnon and Tamar. [2] That the dealer Samuel Woodburn purchased the painting and its companion in Italy and transported them to England is suggested by a series of letters from his good friend Sir Thomas Lawrence: published in D. E. Williams, _The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence_, 2 vols., London, 1831; this reference was provided by Burton Fredericksen of The Getty Provenance Index (letter of 8 February 1988, NGA curatorial files). On 29 June 1820, Lawrence asked Samuel Woodburn, then on the continent, probably in Italy, "What will you sell the Potiphar's Wife for, unaccompanied by the other picture? Suppose you were to make up your mind to this, Lord D. likes the other best. There's a good chance of your selling the Potiphar's Wife to the M..." (Williams 1831: 2:280). Writing to Woodburn in Rome on 17 December 1822, Lawrence records the arrival at Calais of "the Guercinos" (Williams 1831: 2:281). In letters to Woodburn in Paris of early 1823 and of 8 March 1823, Lawrence says how much he likes "the Guercinos," especially the _Joseph and Potiphar's Wife_ (Williams 1831, 2:294, 413). "The M" may be Lawrence's good friend and patron, Charles Stewart, who, however, succeeded to the marquesate of Londonderry only in 1822. Although Stewart owned the paintings by 1833 (see note 3), there is no record that he purchased them from Woodburn. [3] M. Passavant, _Tour of a German Artist in England_, 2 vols., London, 1836: 178, mentions the paintings in the Londonderry collection, misidentifying the _Amnon and Tamar_ as "Tarquin and Lucretia." [4] M. Montgomery Hyde, _Londonderry House and Its Pictures_, London, 1937: 15, 56.

NGA object ID 66775. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.