Giuseppe Maria Crespi

Possibly Padre Maestro Cavalli;
Private collection, Venice, by 1945;
European private collection;
Anonymous sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 17 October 2012, lot 614, where purchased by the present owner.

Bologna, Salone del Podestà, Mostra Celebrativa di Giuseppe M. Crespi, June – July 1948, no. 40.

Possibly M.G. Zanotti, Storia dell'Accademia Clemenetina di Bologna, Bologna 1739, vol. II, p. 59;
F. Archangeli and G. Gnudi, Mostra Celebrativa di Giuseppe M. Crespi, Bologna 1948, p. 39, cat. no. 40, reproduced pl. XXV;
J. Bean, 'Drawings by Giuseppe Maria Crespi', in Master Drawings, 1966, vol. 4, no. 4, p. 419, reproduced fig. 1;
P. Merriman, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Milan 1980, p. 259, cat. no. 90.

The canvas has an old relining, the paint surface is secure and stable with a clear and even varnish, there are no major damages visible to the naked eye. There is a slight degree of wear throughout the dark background behind the saint, but otherwise the picture appears to be in good overall condition. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals a thick and opaque varnish, with scattered minor retouchings throughout; the most concentrated area of which is in the red of the drapery on the floor to the right of the saints feet, and a small area of localised retouchings in the neck and collar of the saint. In good overall condition offered in a carved wooden frame in fair condition.
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There is a red chalk drawing by Crespi in the Louvre, Paris, representing a seated, bearded male model, supporting a large book with his left hand, which must have served as a study for this painting.¹ Comparison of the drawing with the finished painting is particularly interesting; the drawing is a sophisticated example of the established tradition of Bolognese academic draughtsmanship, showing the clear influence of Carlo Cignani, in whose studio Crepsi studied figure drawing; in the final painting however, those traces of the eccentric and highly personal style for which Crespi is widely known and admired, are far more evident.

In his 1739 account of the Accademia Clementina in Bologna, Zanotti recorded that in the private chapel of Padre Maestro Cavalli Servita there was a canvas by Crespi of this subject: 'un piccolo quadro di un san Giovanni vangelista, che nell' isola di Patmos sta scrivendo l'apocalisse, ed è quadro aggiustato al sommo, ed elegante'.² In the publication that accompanied the 1948 exhibition in Bologna, Archangeli and Gnudi proposed a date of execution for this work of around 1720–30.³

1. Bean 1966, reproduced pl. 32.
2. Zanotti 1739, vol. II, p. 59.
3. Archangeli and Gnudi 1948, p. 39.