CRESPÍ, GIUSEPPE MARIA, known as lo SPAGNOLO. — Painter, born in Bologna on 16 March 1665, died there on 16 July 1747. He studied in his native city, first under Domenico Maria Canuti and then under the unconventional Antonio Burrini; he subsequently completed his artistic education by travelling and studying 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 Canuti’s Baroque style is evident. His personal style, however, soon revealed itself in works of exceptional importance, such as the two ceilings frescoed with The Seasons and The Feast of the Gods in the Pepoli palace in Bologna (1691). His luminous painting is characterised by lively contrasts of colour and chiaroscuro, with dark tones gathering in the foreground in opposition to ringing silvery notes. He painted many altarpieces, including: The Ecstasy of St Margaret, in the Diocesan Museum of Cortona; The Virgin with Saints John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, and Stephen in the cathedral of Sarzana (1722); The Miracle of St Francis Xavier in the church of the Gesù in Ferrara; and The Assumption of the Virgin in the church of the Crocefisso dei Bianchi in Lucca. His finest production, however, consists of his biblical and genre paintings, now in Italian and foreign collections, some of them small in size, into which he sometimes infused his own burlesque and popular vein. The following may be mentioned: The Massacre of the Innocents (1706) and The Fair at Poggio a Cajano (1909) in the Uffizi; The Farm and The Painter’s Family in the picture gallery of Bologna. The expressive immediacy of the brushwork and the attentive observation of chiaroscuro effects are revealed more than anywhere else in the series of the Seven Sacraments in the Dresden picture gallery (1712), his masterpiece. He was also a portraitist and engraver. The twenty illustrations for the stories of Bertoldo and Bertoldino are celebrated; their plates were later taken up and completed by his friend Lodovico Mattioli, who added his own signature. In Bologna, besides his sons Antonio and Luigi, C. had many pupils, among them Giuseppe Gamberini, Antonio Gionima, and Giacomo Bambaldi; his work was also of decisive importance for the development of Piazzetta and Pietro Longhi.