Paolo Antonio Barbieri

1603 – 1649

Italian painter. He was the younger brother of Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), and both collaborated with him and worked independently as a still-life painter. He was a celebrated painter of still-life and animals. He chose for his subjects fruits, flowers, insects and animals, which he painted after nature with a lively tint of colour, great tenderness of pencil, and a strong character of truth and life. He particularly excelled in painting fish, which he represented with astonishing fidelity. Guercino's Libro dei conti, for which, from 1629, Barbieri was responsible, recorded 42 pictures by him, including the Spice Shop. In 1642 Paolo Antonio moved to Bologna with Guercino, and seven more works are recorded in the account book in Bologna. The two brothers collaborated on Flora (1642) and on the Woman and Child with Fruit (both Palazzo Rospigliosi-Pallavicini, Rome); the latter, in which the figures are by Guercino, was bought by Cardinal Mazarin in 1646. They also worked together on Ceres (Palazzo Doria-Pamphili, Rome), in which Paolo Antonio painted the floral decoration.

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