Daniele Crespi

Variant namesDaniele Crespi

DatesBiographical dates: 1597 - 1630 Dead: dead 1630-07-19 Born: born 1597

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BiographyBiography: Daniele Crespi was a north Italian artist who was active for just a few decades in the early 17th century before his untimely death from the plague. Crespi was a student of Giovanni Battista Crespi (1573–1632), called il Cerano, and Giulio Cesare Procaccini (1574–1625). His clearly delineated compositions are characterized by an expressive chromatic quality, coupled to striking effect with a certain Caravaggesque chiaroscuro. As was the case for both his masters, the patronage of Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564–1631) was of importance to Daniele Crespi, though perhaps mainly indirectly in his case. In 1621 he was inducted to the Borromeo-founded Accademia Ambrosiana, in whose school of painting Cerano taught. Important early works by Crespi are frescoes of St John and the Adoration of the Magi, painted in 1620 for the chapel of San Giovanni and for the sacristy in the church of Sant’Alessandro, Milan. In their execution he was heavily influenced by his two masters. A St Catherine in the sacristy of the cathedral, Milan, the altarpiece of Christ in Glory with Saints in the Certosa di Pavia, and a Pietà, in the Prado, Madrid, are all exponents of the “chromatic chiaroscuro” that characterizes the artist’s short mature period. Perhaps Crespi’s most celebrated works are the frescoes depicting scenes from the life of St Bruno which he painted in 1629 for the Certosa di Garegnano in Milan. Crespi conveys a great sense of scenic narrative in these quadratura frescoes, which show the influence of the Bolognese school and which are quite similar, in particular, to the work of Lanfranco.

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