Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, better known as Guercino, or il Guercino, was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. He was called Guercino in reference to his pronounced squint and was the leading Bolognese painter after the death of Guido Reni. Guercino was remarkable for the extreme rapidity of his executions: he completed no fewer than 106 large altarpieces for churches, and his other paintings amount to about 144. He was also a prolific draftsman. His production includes many drawings, usually in ink, washed ink, or red chalk. Most of them were made as preparatory studies for his paintings, but he also drew landscapes, genre subjects, and caricatures for his own enjoyment. Guercino's drawings are known for their fluent style in which "rapid, calligraphic pen strokes combined with dots, dashes, and parallel hatching lines describe the forms" It was only in the last century that drawing became a respectable, stand-alone medium. Before that, it was treated as an educational tool or as preparation for larger works. Today they are used by fine arts students learning draftsmanship and style.