"Portrait of Fra Bonaventura Bisi, Called "Il Pittorino"

Fra Bonaventura Bisi (1601-1659), called “Il Pittorino” or “Padre Pittorino,” was a Franciscan friar from the convent of San Francesco, Bologna. He was well known as a practicing engraver and miniature painter. He became a good friend of Guercino.

Guercino’s warm and subtle portrait of his friend and fellow painter shows the aging friar as a thin and fragile man. The canvas displays Guercino’s consummate technique in rendering the flesh tones and the moist eyes of Bisi. The sitter holds a red-chalk portrait of hiss patron Alfonso IV d’Este.