Saint Joseph and the Infant Jesus

Nicknamed Guercino for being cross-eyed, the Bolognese painter was a prolific draftsman who developed his ideas on paper before committing them to canvas. He often relied on swiftly executed sketches to experiment with figural groupings, psychological mood, and lighting effects. This intimate portrait of the infant Jesus and his adopted father demonstrates the spontaneous quality of Guercino’s sketches. Energetic flashes of pen suggest the basic forms of the figures, while clusters of closely spaced parallel lines indicate the shadows.