The Return of the Prodigal Son Oil on canvas (c.1655) Timken Museum of Art. San Diego CA by Barbieri, Giovanni Francesco (1591-1666)
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, better known as Il Guercino, was from the Emilia region of northern Italy near Bologna. Barbieri painted this biblical scene on five separate occasions over his long career, the first in 1617, and the last being this version from around 1655. Captured here is the climactic moment in Luke’s Gospel 15:30-32 when the wayward son – shown semi-naked and full of remorse and shame - returns to his father’s home after wasting his inheritance. The father, identified by his luxurious apparel, receives him with a gesture of welcome and unconditional love. Cowering to the left of the picture is either the older brother or a servant, perhaps both playing a singular role. For according to the parable, the brother objects to the father's compassion for the sinful son: "Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him." To cement the moral of the parable the father replied, "But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found". Also unique to Barbieri’s version of the parable in this painting are the moving gestures of reconciliation and forgiveness: father and son embrace at the wrist while the father wraps the boy’s nakedness with his cloak.
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