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Guercino, 'Elijah Fed by Ravens', 1620

 


With Baroque drama, expressive light and shade, alongside a contorted figure crammed into the picture frame, Guercino successfully captures the desperation of Elijah, stretching out his dark purple cloth to catch the food which falls from ravens above him. Based on the lesser known Old Testament narrative, the artist concentrates on the study of an ageing figure to convey his hunger and failing strength, against the fading blue lighting and cool stream below. 

The monumental canvas gifts the viewer with a life-size representation of Elijah, whist enabling Guercino to show off the power of foreshortening - with his right knee jutting out towards a viewer, Elijah seems almost to fall out of the canvas towards us, toppling forward and bearing down on us to enhance that monumentality. This also suggests Guercino's debt to Caravaggio when constructing his Baroque canvases, and the torn red sleeve to reveal Elijah's white undershirt was yet another favoured motif of the Cavaraggisti more widely. The work was created for Cardinal Jacopo Serra, who was an enthusiastic patron of Guercino, before it passed into the hands of the Barberini family. Despite the choice of a lesser known biblical narrative, the accurate study of a desperate figure, coupled with the monumentality of the work itself, inspired piety and devotion. 

Guercino's painterly realism becomes evident in his contortion of the human figure. The pose is unusual and unnatural, and the protruding right knee is almost greying in colour, as a reflection of the stone and scroll on the opposite side of the painting. Elijah's pinkish toes are weathered and veiny, having to adapt to the permanent outdoor conditions he now faces, red from the cold of the stream in the background and the harsh rocks which the figure throws himself upon. This redness is picked out again by the colour of Elijah's tunic, showing how Guercino uses splashes of similar colours to guide a viewer's eye across the canvas, so every detail is appreciated. Despite the figure's obvious old age, with his open mouth and wide, begging, upwards gaze, alongside the narrative of being fed by ravens, an extension of both nature and God, there is a certain maternal element to the story - Elijah must be fed to survive, and Guercino presents him wrapped up in a purple cloth, almost like a swaddled baby. Guercino's painting becomes a retelling which is built upon the lifecycle itself, bridging the gap between birth and old age through the figure of Elijah who, in the guise of a helpless child, returns to the very start of life before a viewer's eyes, fed by nature and forced to fend for himself in the wild. 


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