Head of a man

The son of a minor Milanese fresco painter, Giovanni Battista Crespi rose to become one of the city’s leading artists. Better known as 'il Cerano', a name derived from his birthplace near Novara, he was also active as an architect, engraver, and writer. His paintings are distinctive for their naturalism and the heightened humanity he brought to religious subjects. Between 1586 and 1595, Cerano lived in Rome, where he met the influential Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who became an important patron after Cerano returned to Milan. In 1620, he was appointed director of the painting academy founded there by Borromeo.

This vigorously characterized head, painted on slate, belongs to a late phase of Cerano's career, probably around the time of the devastating plague of 1630-31, which decimated the population in Milan. Filippo Maria Ferro has tentatively suggested that it may be a self-portrait (op. cit., p. 29, note 59).