Giuseppe Maria Crespi, known as “Lo Spagnolo” (Bologna, 1665 - 1747)
Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Peter of Alcantara, 1730/1740 ca.
oil on canvas; inv. P 107
acquisition: bequest of Agostino Sieri Pepoli, 1910
An important example of the work of Crespi's late period, this painting portrays the two ascetic saints with realism, showing their faces with an expression close to suffering. The religious tension of the characters is evoked through the fluid and richly modulated brushwork and by the painting’s gloomy atmosphere, barely illuminated by flickering light. Crespi frequently depicted saints in meditation or ecstasy, but the specific paring of these two figures is an unusual iconography.
