MENU
Oil on canvas
168 x 120 cm
Provenance: Finarte Milan, April 2003, sale 1202, lot 74 (as circle of Piazzetta); Private collection, United Kingdom; from whom acquired
Exhibited: Louis Cretey. Un visionnaire entre Lyon et Rome, (Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 22 October 2010 - 24 January 2011)
Louis Cretey is a highly individual exponent of one of the most anticlassical, non-conformist and eccentric expressions of Baroque painting.
He was born in Lyon in around 1635 and travelled to Italy on multiple occasions, with the most significant of his stays taking place between 1669 and 1682 when he travelled to Parma, probably Modena and Rome. During this time, he secured the important patronage of Giovanni Simone Boscoli, lieutenant general of the Artillery of the Duke of Parma, and Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali in Rome.
This Resurrection was almost certainly painted as an altarpiece in Italy and stands as one of the highpoints of the artist’s oeuvre both in terms of its sheer quality and incredible originality. This canvas is a manifesto of Cretey’s unusual style: Christ is wrapped in glowing-white drapery and appears almost caught in the act of springing to life as a semi-nude athlete silhouetted against an exceptional dawning blue sky. Beneath, a soldier looks out in astonishment. The result is an iconic, timeless interpretation of a religious and often somber subject which, precisely because looks so different from anything else painted at the time, appears exceptionally modern to our eyes.
Upon his return to Lyon in 1683, Cretey was commissioned with the vast decorative scheme for the refectory of the royal Benedictine monastery of Saint-Pierre (now the Museum of Fine Arts), marking the beginning of an intense period of activity and undeniable local success.
Despite his talent and highly distinctive style - and perhaps precisely because of his uncompromisingly original approach to painting - Cretey was long forgotten, and only recently rediscovered and presented to a wider public on the occasion of the 2010 monographic exhibition held in Lyon.
Oil on canvas
168 x 120 cm
Provenance: Finarte Milan, April 2003, sale 1202, lot 74 (as circle of Piazzetta); Private collection, United Kingdom; from whom acquired
Exhibited: Louis Cretey. Un visionnaire entre Lyon et Rome, (Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 22 October 2010 - 24 January 2011)
Louis Cretey is a highly individual exponent of one of the most anticlassical, non-conformist and eccentric expressions of Baroque painting.
He was born in Lyon in around 1635 and travelled to Italy on multiple occasions, with the most significant of his stays taking place between 1669 and 1682 when he travelled to Parma, probably Modena and Rome. During this time, he secured the important patronage of Giovanni Simone Boscoli, lieutenant general of the Artillery of the Duke of Parma, and Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali in Rome.
This Resurrection was almost certainly painted as an altarpiece in Italy and stands as one of the highpoints of the artist’s oeuvre both in terms of its sheer quality and incredible originality. This canvas is a manifesto of Cretey’s unusual style: Christ is wrapped in glowing-white drapery and appears almost caught in the act of springing to life as a semi-nude athlete silhouetted against an exceptional dawning blue sky. Beneath, a soldier looks out in astonishment. The result is an iconic, timeless interpretation of a religious and often somber subject which, precisely because looks so different from anything else painted at the time, appears exceptionally modern to our eyes.
Upon his return to Lyon in 1683, Cretey was commissioned with the vast decorative scheme for the refectory of the royal Benedictine monastery of Saint-Pierre (now the Museum of Fine Arts), marking the beginning of an intense period of activity and undeniable local success.
Despite his talent and highly distinctive style - and perhaps precisely because of his uncompromisingly original approach to painting - Cretey was long forgotten, and only recently rediscovered and presented to a wider public on the occasion of the 2010 monographic exhibition held in Lyon.