Giuseppe Maria Crespi and the « natural »

As paradoxical as it may seem, the artist most dedicated to Bolognese artistic tradition is also the one who had the best grasp on the new century’s preoccupations, the most modern from our 21st century point of view. Having studied with Domenico Canuti and Carlo Cignani, Giuseppe Maria Crespi showed from his very first works a great ability to implement the lessons taught by the Carrache, especially Ludovico’s. In 1708, the great prince Ferdinand of Tuscany put him to the test and he rose to the occasion by delivering in only two days a pair of still lifes in which he abandons decorative conventions by focusing on the heavy materiality of the dead animals and dying fish. When he paints holy or mythological subjects, his main interest is the sentimental bonds driving the action. His approach to everyday life scenes is no less original. In Woman doing the dishes (La Sguattera) from the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, the light comes down and drags the modest kitchen objects from the shadows and shines absolute truth upon them. In his portraits, the theatricalness of the poses allows us to grasp a violent judgment upon the vanity of the aristocracy, though it’s cushioned by a sort of benevolent blasé tolerance. Actually those are the very humanist ideas which led the careful reform championed by cardinal Prospero Lambertini, future pope Benedict XIV and friend of Crespi’s. Among the artists who followed his naturalistic way, only Antonin Gionima achieved results as moving, while his son Luigi Crespi followed the french template and style of portraits. Daily genre scenes were well-liked by collectors and ranged from the amused nonchalant spirit of Aureliano Milani to a more anecdotal and conventional point of view shared by Antonio Rossi, Giuseppe Gambarini and Antonio Beccadelli. The same taste is widely spread among sculptors when creating Christmas cribs : they focus on strange details more than anything, to which they apply a refined grace, often using reference models to give life to a holy figure.