Carlo Ceresa

CARLO CERESA (Bergamo, 1609 - 1679).
"Old woman spinner".
Oil on canvas. Eighteenth century re-colouring.
It conserves a period frame.
Measurements: 130 x 86 cm; 146 x 103 cm (frame).
In this canvas the author captures a portrait that goes beyond the representation of genre, of a popular character, through the psychological deepening and the attention to the character's features, whose expressive face becomes the absolute centre of the image. The composition is very simple and sober, with a naturalistic heritage, with the figure in the foreground, at a large size, in fact, the figure is even out of the painting, cut out against a neutral background and a more illuminated plane around the woman, with areas of semi-darkness. The overall intonation, very restrained and warm, also reveals great sobriety; it revolves around the earthy, ochre and reddish tones of naturalism, punctuated by touches of very nuanced white. Nevertheless, it is a key element in the modelling of the face, its details, small wrinkles and expression, of joyful complicity, which integrates the spectator into the pictorial space. Furthermore, the face is doubly enhanced by the fact that it is framed by the black scarf, the dark tone of which further enhances its direct illumination. The woman is shown with her body slightly turned three-quarters of the way round, but she turns her face to face us. This carefully studied pose introduces movement into the scene, and does so with ease, without apparent effort, achieving a highly naturalistic result. Furthermore, this position of the body breaks with the symmetry and frontality of the conventional portrait, something that is reinforced by the position of the hands, which are raised on the left side of the painting to hold the wool and the spindle.
The piece is aesthetically reminiscent of works by Carlo Ceresa, a pupil and later assistant to the Milanese painter Daniele Crespi, whose style and vocabulary survived in his work after the master's death in 1630. He was active in the Bergamo area and produced a large number of religious works characterised by great sobriety and a discreet approach combined with the vivid colour of the Veneto school. He was also a skilled portraitist whose services were sought after by the city's noble families. The naturalism that pervades the depiction of his subjects recalls the work of Moroni and awaits Fra Galgario and Ceruti (Pitochetto).