CRESPÍ, Giuseppe Maria, called Lo Spagnolo. - Painter, b. in Bologna on 16 March 1665, d. there on 16 July 1747. He studied in his native city first with Domenico Maria Canuti, then with the unconventional Antonio Burrini; he then completed his artistic education by traveling and observing the works of Baroccio, Carracci and Guercino.
A youthful work by C. is the canvas depicting The Temptations of St. Anthony in the church of S. Niccolò degli Albari in Bologna (1690), in which the influence of the Baroque Canuti is evident. Very soon, however, his personal style reveals itself in works of exceptional importance such as the two frescoed ceilings with The Seasons and The Banquet of the Gods in the Palazzo Pepoli in Bologna (1691). His luminous painting is characterized by lively contrasts of color and of chiaroscuro, with dark tones thickening in the foregrounds in opposition to ringing silvery notes. He painted many altarpieces, among which: The Ecstasy of St. Margaret, from the Diocesan Museum of Cortona; The Virgin with Sts. John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and Stephen from the cathedral of Sarzana (1722); the Miracle of St. Francis Xavier from the church of the Gesù in Ferrara and the Assumption of the Virgin from the church of the Crocefisso dei Bianchi in Lucca. But his best production is formed by paintings on biblical and genre subjects, now in Italian and foreign collections, some of small dimensions, into which he sometimes poured his own burlesque and popular vein. Worthy of mention are: The Massacre of the Innocents (1706) and The Fair of Poggio a Cajano (1909) at the Uffizi; The Farm and The Painter's Family in the picture gallery of Bologna. The expressive immediacy of the brushstroke and the attentive observation of chiaroscuro effects are revealed, more than elsewhere, in the series of the Seven Sacraments in the picture gallery of Dresden (1712), his masterpiece. He was also a portraitist and an engraver. Famous are the twenty illustrations for the stories of Bertoldo and Bertoldino, whose plates were later taken up and completed by his friend Lodovico Mattioli, who affixed his own signature to them. In Bologna, besides his sons Antonio and Luigi, C.'s pupils were many, among them: Giuseppe Gamberini, Antonio Gionima and Giacomo Bambaldi, but his work was also of decisive value for the formation of Piazzetta and of Pietro Longhi.