The Visitation
The Visitation
- Artist
- Giuseppe Maria Crespi
- Artist Dates
- 1665-1747
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- The Visitation
- Date
- 1710-15
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 57.8 x 48.9 cm (22-3/4 x 19-1/4 in)
- K Number
- K1404
- Repository
- University of Arizona Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1962.009.008
- Notes
Provenance
(Carlo Foresti, Milan). (Arnold Seligman, Rey & Co, New York); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 26 June 1945; gift to University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1962, no. 1962.009.008.
Catalogue Entry
Giuseppe Maria Crespi
The Visitation
K1404
Tucson, Ariz., University of Arizona, Study Collection (62.157), since 1962. Canvas. 22 3/4 x 19 1/4 in. (57.8 x 48.9 cm.). Fair condition; restoration on strip at right side. The sketchy handling of the rich pigments and the informal, genrelike interpretation of the scene place K1404 in Crespi's period of the series of Sacraments, which he painted for Cardinal Ottoboni; the date of K1404 would then be, probably, about 1710/15.(1) In the style of this period, in which the figures seem, instead of being drawn, to be modeled in pigment, Crespi was probably strongly influenced by Mazzoni.(2) A Visitation catalogued as Crespi in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, shows the arrangement of figures somewhat more compact, but otherwise very similar to that in K1404. X-ray indicates some changes in the pose of St. Elizabeth in K1404: her head has been brought closer to the Virgin in the final version. Provenance: Carlo Foresti, Milan –exhibited: 'Mostra del Settecento Bolognese,' Palazzo Comunale, Bologna, 1935, no. 16 of catalogue, as Crespi, 1709; 'Venetian Paintings and Drawings,' Matthiesen Galleries, London, Feb. 23-Apr. 6, 1939, no. 52, as Crespi, 1709. Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., New York –exhibited: 'Night Scenes,' Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., Feb. 15-Mar. 7, 1940, no. 7, as Crespi; 'Italian Baroque Painting,' California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, Calif., May 16-June 15, 1941, no. 25 of catalogue, as Crespi, 1709;(3) 'Three Baroque Painters,' Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Md., Apr. 28-June 4, 1944, no. 16, as Crespi, 1709. Kress acquisition, 1945 –exhibited: National Gallery of Art (843),1945-52, as Crespi; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex., 1953-61;(4) since entering the Tucson Museum: 'Religion in Painting,' Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Ark., Dec. 3, 1963-Jan. 30, 1964, no. 25 of catalogue, as Crespi; Mesa Community College, Mesa, Ariz., Jan. 1967, no. 1 of catalogue, as Crespi.
References
(1) Notwithstanding the implication of the categorical dating 1709 given in some of the exhibition catalogues cited under Provenance, K1404 is not dated by either inscription or document. It is attributed to Crespi, in the early 1700s, by G. Fiocco (in ms. opinion); see also note 4, below. (2) See K1697 (Fig. 248). (3) T. C. Howe, Jr., in Pacific Art Review, Summer 1941, p. 2, as Crespi. (4) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1953, no. 23, as Crespi. probably c. 1709.