CRIVELLI, CARLO AND VITTORE. - Painters: CARLO b. in Venice between 1430-35 and d. there between 1493-95. He trained in the Paduan school and came under the influence of Rogier van der Weyden, through one of his followers. He carried out most of his activity in the Marches, where he took refuge, fleeing from Venice because of a sentence imposed on him there (1457). In 1478 he is found in Ascoli Piceno; in 1488 he was in Camerino.
The development of his activity can easily be traced through a series of many signed and dated works, from 1468 (polyptych of the Urbino gallery) to 1493 (Coronation of Brera, formerly in S. Francesco in Fabriano). From Mantegna and the Paduan school he drew the incisiveness of line, the vigorous plastic sense, the clear and firm coloring, the love for decorations of festoons of fruits and flowers, of fabrics and precious marbles, but from the very beginning he modified these models with that decorative sense which, ever more refined, constitutes the principal attraction of his paintings. To it are subordinated the architectural details of the backgrounds, the garments of the figures, and even the features of their faces distorted by suffering. The drawing is rigid and sharp, the sacred figures hieratically severe, the expression of the emotions, especially in those posed in grief, carried to the point of exaggeration.
Among the principal works are remembered: the polyptych with the Madonna and saints (1481), the Madonna (1482) and the Pietà, all in the Vatican picture gallery; the Annunciation in the National Gallery of London (1486), delightful for the details of a refined decorative realism; the Madonna della candeletta and the Coronation (1493) of the Brera gallery, a perfect example of what the art of C. can do.
Carlo C., not a great master, is to be placed among the most sincere artists of every time and every region, and in his paintings he often attracts more than the very greatest. His models, together with those of other Venetians, had a great part in the formation of the school of the Marches.
VITTORE, his brother (b. in Venice ca. 1445, d. between 1501 and 1502) was a close imitator of him; numerous works of his, lacking originality, remain in the Brera gallery, in various churches and collections of the Marches and in Italian and foreign collections. - See pl. LX.
Bibliography2 works
Vincenzo Golzio