Daniele Crespi, The Conversion of
Saint Paul, circa 1621, Oil on wood panel, 118.7 cm x 84.5 cm (46 3/4 in. x 33
1/4 in.), The Suida-Manning Collection ■
Had Daniele Crespi enjoyed a longer career, and were his works not largely
confined to Lombardy, he would be widely known as a master of the first order.
He was without doubt the finest painter of the second generation of Baroque
painting in Milan. In his paintings the willful deformation and troubling
intensity of the school’s first generation have been subjected to a more
disciplined sense of design and a more predictable language of expression, reflecting
the lessons of recent Florentine painting as well as the emerging Bolognese
academy. The resulting style is original in its staging but legible in its
action and noble in its feeling. This is one of Crespi’s most important early
pictures. The general composition and its compression of space into a single
plane derive from a low-relief sculpture designed by Cerano for the façade of
the church of San Paolo Converso in Milan. The intricate rhythms and the
palette depend more on Giulio Cesare Procaccini, another major figure of the
first generation who was Crespi’s principal inspiration if not actual teacher.
But the incisive drawing of Saint Paul, the exact modeling of his forms, and
the memorable enunciation of the drama announce the fact and direction of a
distinctive language. The Suida-Manning Collection includes a second
outstanding picture by Crespi, Ecce Homo of about two years later ■
