Putti Frolicking with Birds
Putti Frolicking with Birds
- Artist
- Giuseppe Maria Crespi
- Artist Dates
- 1665-1747
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Putti Frolicking with Birds
- Date
- c. 1700-10
- Medium
- oil on copper, mounted on wood
- Dimensions
- 30.8 x 44.2 cm (12-1/8 x 17-3/8 in)
- K Number
- K465
- Repository
- El Paso Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1961.1.44
- Notes
Provenance
(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 1 August 1936 ; gift to El Paso Museum of Art in 1961, no. 1961.1.44.
Catalogue Entry
Giuseppe Maria Crespi
Putti Frolicking with Birds
K465
El Paso, Tex., EI Paso Museum of Art (1961-6/38a and b), since 1961.(1) Copper. Each, 12 1/8 X 17 3/8 in. (30.8 X 44.2 cm.). Good condition. The landscape settings seem to be based on actual views, and the figures and movements of the children and animals are clearly studied from life. But at the time these pictures were painted, about 1700,(2) Crespi was fresh from the study of Correggio's putti at Parma, which no doubt accounts in some measure for the delicate play of light and shade over the soft bodies; and the lyrical glow along the horizons may owe something to Titian's and Giorgione's landscapes, which Crespi had seen in Venice. Provenance: Contini Bonacossi, Florence – exhibited: 'Mostra del Settecento Bolognese,' Palazzo Comunale, Bologna, 1935, p. 13 of catalogue, as Crespi. Kress acquisition, 1936 – exhibited: 'Paintings by Giuseppe Maria Crespi,' Durlacher Bros., New York, Jan. 6-Feb. 6, 1937, nos. 1 and 2, as Crespi; 'Golden Gate International Exposition,' San Francisco, Calif, 1940, nos. 154 and 155 of catalogue, as Crespi.
References
(1) Catalogue by F. R. Shapley, 1961, no. 38, as Crespi. (2) K464 and 465 have been attributed to Crespi, in ms. opinions, by G. Fiocco, R. Longhi (dating them c. 1700), R. van Marle, F. M. Perkins, W. E. Suida (dating them c. 1700), and A. Venturi. See also catalogues cited under Provenance.