Guercino

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri had a squint, a cast in one eye, and it followed him through life as a name: everyone called him Guercino, the squinter. Largely self-taught in the small town of Cento, he arrived in Rome in 1621 as a natural talent with a gift for drama.

His moment came fast. For the new pope, Gregory XV, he painted the 'Aurora' ceiling in a garden casino, opening the sky so convincingly that the goddess of dawn seems to drive her chariot straight over the viewer's head, the painted architecture melting into real space. It is early Baroque illusion at full stretch, dark, warm, and daring.

When the pope died in 1623 Guercino went back to Cento and, over the years, cooled his style, trading the deep shadows and bold foreshortening for clearer light and calmer poses closer to his rival Guido Reni. He ran a busy, well-organised workshop and kept careful account books, which survive and still tell us what he charged for each commission.