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The Baroque period was a time of rapid transition when the Italian arts evolved into a more textured and deeper medium of personal expression. Guercino, a young savant from the small northern town of Cento, was highly influenced by the Carracci’s among others who focused on a bold new form of naturalism. Over Guercino’s long lifetime, his ''Prima Maniera'' featuring bold compositions with strong lighting and shading learned in the north, yielded ever more to his ''Secondo Maniera'' which employed a subtle palette with a more refined classical style.  Guercino’s late in life work ''[[Keyword:=The Personification of Astrology|The Personification of Astrology]] (1655)'' serves as a strong guidepost for a retrospective on his illustrious career. We will start with a comparison to his widely acknowledged seminal work ''The Burial of Saint Petronilla (1623)'', created during his short but productive Roman period, before looking at a midlife work ''Esther before Ahasuerus (1639)''.  

The Baroque period was a time of rapid transition when the Italian arts evolved into a more textured and deeper medium of personal expression. Guercino, a young savant from the small northern town of Cento, was highly influenced by the Carracci’s among others who focused on a bold new form of naturalism. Over Guercino’s long lifetime, his ''Prima Maniera'' featuring bold compositions with strong lighting and shading learned in the north, yielded ever more to his ''Secondo Maniera'' which employed a subtle palette with a more refined classical style.  Guercino’s late in life work ''[[Keyword:=The Personification of Astrology|The Personification of Astrology]] (1655)'' serves as a strong guidepost for a retrospective on his illustrious career. We will start with a comparison to his widely acknowledged seminal work ''The Burial of Saint Petronilla (1623)'', created during his short but productive Roman period, before looking at a midlife work ''Esther before Ahasuerus (1639)''.  

===Success in Rome: '''The Burial of St. Petronilla (1623)''===

===Success in Rome: ''The Burial of St. Petronilla (1623)''===

Guercino formed the ideas leading to his Prima Maniera from his hometown of Cento, in the independent Emilia region of Italy where the Carracci’s Bolognese school dominated the somewhat isolated region. Works from the school greatly influenced Guercino’s naturalistic style, which featured strong lighting and shading choices. Guercino’s bold take on this chiaroscuro style impressed powerful religious patrons, eventually leading him to Rome in 1621 after much success in the north.  However, “His early naturalistic chiaroscuro style, so successfully practiced in Emilia, was not highly regarded in the sophisticated Roman court milieu in which he then found himself” <ref>Turner</ref>. Two years later, ''The Burial of Saint Petronilla (1623)'' showed the court a radical reorientation of his Prima Maniera style that was as bold as his previous efforts, but exuded a new level of refinement.

Guercino formed the ideas leading to his Prima Maniera from his hometown of Cento, in the independent Emilia region of Italy where the Carracci’s Bolognese school dominated the somewhat isolated region. Works from the school greatly influenced Guercino’s naturalistic style, which featured strong lighting and shading choices. Guercino’s bold take on this chiaroscuro style impressed powerful religious patrons, eventually leading him to Rome in 1621 after much success in the north.  However, “His early naturalistic chiaroscuro style, so successfully practiced in Emilia, was not highly regarded in the sophisticated Roman court milieu in which he then found himself” <ref>Turner</ref>. Two years later, ''The Burial of Saint Petronilla (1623)'' showed the court a radical reorientation of his Prima Maniera style that was as bold as his previous efforts, but exuded a new level of refinement.