Daniele Crespi

The painting is cooler in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests, particularly in the Madonna's face. The support consists of a thick and flat panel which has been extended by an inch to the right. The paint surface is under a thick glossy and yellowed varnish, and appears secure to the naked eye though some areas of past abrasion can be made out, for example in the veil to the left of the face. Areas of discoloured retouching can be made out in the aforementioned extension to the right, in the right part of the veil where the paint has become somewhat thin, around the elbow area, in her left wrist, in her fingers and right cheek, centre left and lower left in her blue veil, and in the red under garment beside her ribght arm. Thin surface scratches cracks of aprox 10 cm can be made out upper left, lower left and lower right. Overall the panting retains its beauty but would benefit from removal of some of the old retouchings and application of a new varnish. Offered in a later wood and plaster frame with some minor knocks.
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This exciting new addition to the oeuvre of Daniele Crespi dates from the 1620s.  It was during this decade that the young Crespi came into his own as an artist, moving away from the exaggerated style of Lombard mannerism to develop his own original style focused on stark depiction of form and a simplification of content.

In the present painting this has resulted in an intense, psychological depiction of the Madonna paused in contemplation and prayer.  Her simple, almost heavy, facial features appear repeatedly in Crespi's other Madonnas of the 1620s.  They can be found in a more emotional format in the Prado Pietà and again in the compositionally more ambitious Madonna and Child with Saints Francis and Carlo Borromeo in the Pinacoteca dell'Ambrosiana (see N. Ward Neilson, Daniele Crespi, Soncino 1996, pp. 31, 35, 109 and 177).

We are grateful to Dr. Francesco Frangi for endorsing the attribution to Crespi on the basis of photographs and for suggesting a date of execution in the 1620s.