Crespi, Giovanni Battista, Known as Il Cerano

CRESPI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, known as CERANO. - Painter, architect, and sculptor, born at Cerano in 1557, died at Milano in 1633. Besides Milano, he also worked in Roma and Venezia. His paintings are exceedingly numerous and reveal grandeur of composition, breadth of brushwork, and remarkable plastic power.

In addition to a series of large canvases painted for the Milanese Duomo, depicting Miracles and events from the life of St. Carlo Borromeo, mention should be made of the Franciscan Vow, dated 1600, in the Kaiser Friedrich-Museum in Berlin; the Baptism of Christ in the Frankfurt gallery (1601); the Pietà in the Museo Civico of Novara (1610); the notable Baptism of St. Agostino (1618) in the church of S. Marco in Milano; 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 Firenze, Cremona, Torino, etc.

In 1629 he was appointed superintendent of the engineering and sculptural works of the Duomo; he also built, likewise
CRESPI GIOVANNI BATTISTA - CRESPÍ DE VALDAURA Y BORJA LUÍS 868

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(photo Alinari) CRESPÍ, GIOVAN BATTISTA - Madonna of the Rosary. Milan, Brera Picture Gallery.
in Milan, the church of S. Paolo, and also sculpted various bas-reliefs for its façade. He was likewise the designer of the colossal statue of S. Carlo at Arona; one of his drawings for it is preserved in the Ambrosian Library.

BIBL.: H. Voss, s. V. in Thieme-Becker, VIII, pp. 91-92 (with previous bibliography); N. Pevsner, Die Gemälde des G. B. C. genannt Cerano, in Jahrb. d. preuss. Kunstsamml., 46 (1925), pp. 250-85; id., Nachtrag zu G. B. C. genannt Cerano, ibid., 49 (1928), pp. 48-49; P. d'Ancona, s. V. ENOCH. Ital., XI (1931), p. 843 (with bibliography). Mario Massaccesi
Cite this article

“CRESPI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, DETTO IL CERANO.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV (1950), p. 511. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/crespi-giovanni-battista-detto-il-cerano.