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Lot description
GIUSEPPE MARIA CRESPI (LO SPAGNUOLO) (Bologna, 1665-1747) Scene at the Wall of a Cathedral c.1730-1740 oil on canvas 56 x 71.5cm (69.5 x 84cm framed) PROVENANCE: Giovanni Rasini di Castel Campo Collection, Milan, 1948 (Merriman, p. 311) Robert Compton Jones EXHIBITIONS: Mostra del Settecento Bolognese (Exhibition of 18th-century Bolognese Art), Palazzo Comunale, Bologna, 1935 Mostra celebrativa di Giuseppe M. Crespi (Commemorative Exhibition of Giuseppe M. Crespi), Salone del Podestà, Bologna, June-July 1948, no. 20 LITERATURE: Mostra del Settecento Bolognese. Exh. cat., Palazzo Comunale. Bologna, 1935, p. 11 Mostra celebrativa di Giuseppe M. Crespi, catalogo della mostra (Bologna, Salone del Podestà, giugno-luglio 1948), Bologna 1948, p. 32-33, no. 20 Roli, R., Pittura Bolognese, 1650–1800, Dal Cignani al Gandolfi, Bologna, 1977, p. 185 (344a) Merriman, M P, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, ed. 1931/2000, Rizzoli: Milan, 1980, p. 311, no. 265 (illus.), (accompanied by a copy of this publication) OTHER NOTES: "The traditional name of the painting, Charity, does not accurately describe the activities taking place in the picture, the intent of which seems less allegorical than reportorial. A careful study of the work shows that the scene is taking place along the side wall of a very large church, a place where the homeless and the poor, the pilgrims and the church-goers traditionally gather. Nobody is engaged in charitable activity, though there are beggars and idlers. Instead, it is a reconstructed street scene, such as might have struck Crespi's imagination when walking under the arcades opposite the wall of S. Petronio. Crespi has used figures and groups which also appear in other works; Farm Family (no. 229), Pastoral Scene with Shepherdesses (no. 234), and Woman Spinning and Two Children (no. 258)." (Merriman, p. 311) RELATED WORK: Crespi, The Farmer's Family (Farm Family) c.1715-1720, oil on canvas, 58 x 57.3cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary (inv. 519)