1665 -1747 · Bologna and Northern Italy

Dense chiaroscuro, everyday truth and freedom of touch give Giuseppe Maria Crespi a unique place in Bolognese baroque.

Giuseppe Maria Crespi was born in Bologna in 1665. Nicknamed Lo Spagnuolo because of his taste for dark clothing in Spanish fashion, he trained in the Carracci tradition with Domenico Maria Canuti, then in the circle of Carlo Cignani. The merchant Giovanni Ricci finances study trips which allow him to observe Correggio, Veronese and the great masters of Northern Italy. Crespi assimilates these influences without submitting to an academic formula. His painting can be recognized by a free touch, deep contrasts and direct attention to bodies, gestures and modest environments. He treats religious subjects with concrete humanity: in The Confession, the sacrament takes place in the shadow of a real interior, where attitudes and light make moral intimacy perceptible. At the same time, his genre scenes show cooks, flea researchers, peasants, musicians and small domestic activities with a rare frankness in the Italian painting of his time. The Woman with the Flea combines humor, bodily observation and pictorial material. Crespi, however, remains a history painter capable of large decorative machines, such as Olympus, and luminous observances, including The Immaculate Conception with Saint Anselm and Saint Martin. The Woman with the Flea combines humor, bodily observation and pictorial material. Crespi nevertheless remains a history painter capable of large decorative machines, such as Olympus, and luminous altarpieces, including The Immaculate Conception with Saint Anselm and Saint Martin. His cycle of the Seven Sacraments, produced for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, constitutes one of its peaks: each christian rite becomes a distinct human scene, unified by shadow and emotion. Portraitist, caricaturist, designer and engraver, Crespi also admires Rembrandt and Salvator Rosa. He worked mainly in Bologna, directed a family workshop and influenced genre painting of the 18th century, particularly in Veneto. Died in 1747, he left a rebellious work to hierarchies: the sacred, the mythological and the ordinary shared the same carnal truth. The selection "Giuseppe Maria Crespi" notably compares Confession and the Immaculate Conception with Saint Anselm and Saint Martin. His reading favors figures.

Crespi brings reality into the baroque: a cuisine, a confession or a trivial gesture acquire under its chiaroscuro the density of a great historical subject.