GIOVANNI GUERRA
(Modena 1544 – 1618 Rome)

Study for a Procession, Baker’s Guild

Pen and brown ink, brown wash
3 ¾ x 4 ¾ inches (9.7 x 10.8 cm)

Provenance:   

Mathias Polakovitz, Paris (his collector’s mark, not in Lugt)
With Richard A. Berman, 2004; where acquired by:
Private Collection, New York.

This striking drawing is from a series of works (all processions) representing various tradesman guilds by Giovanni Guerra. Our depicts the procession of the Baker’s Guild, with several members holding aloft a sculpture decorated with an emblem, while other process with candles.

Guerra was an artist from Modena who was active in Rome in the second half of the 16th century. He was a member of both the Accademia di San Luca and the Virtuosi al Pantheon, and collaborated with the painter Cesare Nebbia on several important projects, including commissions from Pope Sixtus V and Clement VIII. Guerra was responsible for the decoration of the Salone Sisto in the Vatican Library, the Scala Santa at Porta San Giovanni, and the Palazzo Cenci—typically providing designs for frescoes that were executed by other painters.