- NameGiuseppe Caletti
- Sexmale
- Nationality/DatesItalian, born c. 1600, dead c. 1660
BiographyGiuseppe Caletti, known as il Cremonese, most
probably originated from the city of Cremona,
hence the nickname, but was active in Ferrara
from the 1620s onwards. His earliest biographers
describe a painter of great talent, but one who
was “very capricious”, and the artist’s dissolute
life and arrogant attitude seem to have overshadowed
his work, although it was later reappraised
thanks to Nicola Ivanoff’s studies. Caletti was an
eclectic artist, formed by a multitude of different
influences, ranging from the Lombardy painters
Romanino and Pordenone, through Titian,
Giorgione and the Ferrarese Dosso Dossi, to the
Bolognese school and Guercino’s early works.
Caletti’s St Sebastian (Taddei Collection, Cento)
is modelled on Titian’s painting of the same
subject in the Averoldi polyptych (Santi Nazaro e
Celso, Brescia). Caletti mainly undertook private
commissions, often with biblical subjects. David
and Goliath was the subject of a number of macabre
renderings by the artist.