Crespi, Giovanni Battista, called Il Cerano. — Painter, architect, and sculptor, b. at Cerano in 1557, d. at Milan in 1633. He worked, besides in Milan, also in Rome and Venice. His paintings are very numerous and reveal grandeur of composition, broad brushwork, and notable plastic force.
Besides a series of large canvases painted for Milan Cathedral, depicting Miracles and events from the life of St Charles Borromeo, works to be remembered include the Franciscan Profession, dated 1600, in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin; the Baptism of Christ in the Frankfurt gallery (1601); the Pietà in the Civic Museum of Novara (1610); the notable Baptism of St Augustine (1618) in the church of S. Marco in Milan, and the Madonna of the Rosary for the church of S. Lazzaro, now in the Brera Picture Gallery. Other works by him are found in the galleries of Florence, Cremona, Turin, etc.
In 1629 he was appointed superintendent of engineering and statuary works for the Cathedral; he also built
Crespi Giovanni Battista — Crespi de Valdaura y Borja Luis
chiaroscural effects are revealed, more than elsewhere, in the series of the Seven Sacraments in the Dresden Picture Gallery (1712), his masterpiece. He was also a portraitist and engraver. Famous are his twenty illustrations for the stories of Bertoldo and Bertoldino, whose plates were later taken up and completed by his friend Lodovico Mattioli, who added his own signature. Many were in Bologna, besides his sons Antonio and Luigi, the pupils of C., among whom: Giuseppe Gamberini, Antonio Gionima, and Giacomo Bambaldi, but his work had decisive value also for the formation of Piazzetta and Pietro Longhi.