Page 65 - Vision & Ecstasy - Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione's St. Francis.
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Fig.22a GIOVANNI BATTISTA CRESPI (Il Cerano) Fig.22b GIOVANNI BATTISTA CRESPI (Il Cerano)
St Francis in Ecstasy, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. St Francis in prayer, Castello Sforzesco, Milan.
Cerano’s imagery. In the version in the Palazzo Bianco (Fig. 23) Francis rests his cheek against the Crucifix in
clear prediction of the critical motif in Castiglione’s painting.34 But all of Assereto’s interpretations retain a
music-making angel as ostensible agent. They maintain the focus and scale of private devotion and they
compensate for any expressive ambiguity with an almost violent assertion of substance. Here, the reference to
Cerano is selective but true to its essential proposition and fleeting facture. It is the most unusual element in
Castiglione’s painting, and catalytic.
34. Genoa, Musei Civici di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco, inv. no. P.B. 292;T. Zennaro, Gioacchino Assereto (1600-1650) e i pittori
della sua scuola, 2 vols., Soncino 2011, cat.A63.
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