Lights and darks of a picture. The life of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, "il Guercino" - the squinter

Abstract

Purpose: To be cross-eyed is a wide-spread dysfunction of the eye and squinting is currently regarded as unattractive. However, in ancient times, societies saw squinting as a sign of piety or even beauty. Even Venus was depicted heterophoric quite often. The most famous artist who was cross-eyed was Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (*08.02.1591; †22.12.1666, both Italy). His nickname was "Il Guercino" which means "the squinter." This article reflects on vision and art from the perspective of a cross-eyed person.

Methods: Life and work of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri was analyzed and interpreted based on selective literature research of books and journal articles via PubMed, Google Scholar, and Google.

Results: As squinters use mostly only one eye as the other eye is amblyopic, it could be expected that their paintings would be more or less two dimensional. Already at the age of seven, Barbieri showed great talent in drawing and painting. At age 17, he started his education at the famous Bologna school. Barbieri was very productive, leaving behind, at his death,106 large altarpieces and 144 other paintings. During his lifetime, he was well accepted, sought after, and quite wealthy. In analyzing a selection of Barbieri's work, one is amazed at how detailed the artist was in depicting chiaroscuro in his paintings to present a three-dimensional picture.

Conclusions: Barbieri did not make a secret of the dysfunction of his eyes. In contrast, he showed his squinting eye distinctly in his famous self-portrait from ca. 1635. It can be assumed that "Il Guercino" was so detailed in studying light and shadow with his one eye that he could compensate for his amblyopic eye. By this, Barbieri could create pictures with an amazing degree of variations of light and shadow.

Keywords: Barbieri; Baroque Painter; History of Ophthalmology; Squinting; Strabism.