Carlo Crivelli - part 1

Carlo Crivelli was probably born in Venice during the early 1430s. Both his father, Jacopo, and his brother, Vittore, were painters. Carlo is mentioned only once in Venetian documents: in 1457, already a master painter, he was fined and sentenced to six months in prison for abducting a sailor's wife.

Though trained in the late Gothic style of Antonio Vivarini, as his earliest works show, and familiar with the drawings of Jacopo Bellini, from which some of his mature compositions derive, Crivelli was profoundly influenced by early Renaissance art in Padua. There he studied works by Donatello, Fra Filippo Lippi, and the young Andrea Mantegna. He also probably joined the workshop of Francesco Squarcione sometime during the apprenticeship of the Dalmatian painter Giorgio Ciulinovich, called Schiavone, who arrived in 1456 and returned to Zara about 1461. So similar are the two young painters that Crivelli is presumed to have worked with Schiavone in Padua and followed him to Zara, where Crivelli was a resident and citizen by 1465.

By 1468, when he signed and dated an altarpiece in Massa Fermana, Crivelli had moved to the Marches, where an economic resurgence attracted trans-Adriatic immigration. After first living in Fermo, he became a resident of Ascoli Piceno by 1478. Crivelli flourished in this provincial area, where his allegiance to the elaborate compartmentalized polyptych and his superb skill with tempera and gold leaf appealed to the conservative taste of his patrons, and where he was free to develop his unique interpretation of Gothic and Renaissance themes without having to compete with the new Venetian style of Giovanni Bellini. Crivelli may have visited Ferrara about 1470, but from the mid-1470s, when his style had matured, through the 1480s, he resisted outside influences. In his late works, however, he drew inspiration from the altarpiece that Giovanni Bellini painted for Pesaro in the 1470s, and adopted the unified space of the new Renaissance type of altarpiece. The expressive figure style and brilliant, rich colors that distinguish Crivelli's art are remarkably consistent. His success spawned local imitators, including his brother Vittore, who was active in Fermo from 1481. Carlo was ultimately rewarded with a knighthood by Prince Ferdinand of Capua in 1490. He died in Ascoli in 1495.

Biography from The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

This is part 1 of a 3-part post on the works of Carlo Crivelli:

1460c Madonna and Child
tempera and gold on wood 32 x 22.2 cm
Vittorio Cini Collection, Venice, Italy

1465-95c The Saviour Blessing
oil on panel
El Paso Museum of Art, Texas

1468c Madonna and Child
 tempera on panel 62.2 x 41 cm
San Diego Museum of Art, CA

1460c Madonna and Child
tempera and gold on wood 32 x 22.2 cm
Vittorio Cini Collection, Venice, Italy

1468 The Altarpiece of Massa Fermana:

 1468 The Altarpiece of Massa Fermana

1468 Saint John the Baptist
tempera on wood panel 105 x 34 cm

1468 Saint Lorenzo
tempera on wood panel 105 x 34 cm

1468 Saint Silvester
 tempera on wood panel 105 x 34 cm

Saint Francis
tempera on wood panel 105 x 34 cm

1470 Porto San Giorgio altarpiece:

Monumental altarpieces with multiple images (polytychs) were a staple of Cruvelli's painting practice. The Porto San Giorgio altarpiece stood over the high altar of the parish church in the Adriatic coastal town of Porto San Giorgio for over four hundred years.

Following demolition of the church in 1803, the altarpiece was sawn apart and its paintings dispersed to collections in Europe and the United States. Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased "Saint George in 1897, bringing the first Crivelli to America. The six surviving panels are assembled in the reconstruction below.

1470 Porto San Giorgio altarpiece

1470 Porto San Giorgio altarpiece
Lamentation

1470 Porto San Giorgio altarpiece
Saints Catherine and Jerome

1470s c Saints Peter and Paul 
tempera on poplar 93.3 x 47 cm 
The National Gallery, London

1470 Porto San Giorgio altarpiece
Saints Anthony Abbot and Lucy

1470 Saint George Slaying the Dragon
tempera and gold on wood 94 x 47.8 cm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA

1470 Saint George Slaying the Dragon ( detail ) 

1470 Porto San Giorgio altarpiece
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Donor
tempera on poplar panel 125.3 x 50.7 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

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1470-73 Enthroned Madonna ( Enthroned Maria Lactans )
tempera on wood panel 127 x 84 cm

1470-75c The Dead Christ supported by Two Angels
tempera on poplar wood 72.4 x 55.2 cm
The National Gallery, London

1470c ( attributed to ) St Peter
 brown ink, brown wash and white gouache on cream antique laid paper, cut along outlines of figure inlaid into cream antique laid paper, lined with cream wove paper 20.5 x 15.5 cm
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA

1470c Madonna with Child
tempera on wood transferred to canvas 61.9 x 41 cm
Pinacoteca de Macerata, Venice

1470c Saint John the Evangelist
tempera on wood panel 32.1 x 23.5 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, MI

1470c Saint Peter the Apostle
tempera on wood panel 31.8 x 23.2 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, MI

1470c The Deposition of Christ
tempera and gold on wood panel 41.9 x 114.3 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, MI

late 1470s late ( Pietà ) Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels
tempera and tooled gold on panel 71.1 x 47.3 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1471-72 Madonna and Child
panel 183 x 59.5 cm
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

1471-72 St Francis of Assisi
panel 183 x 59.5 cm
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

1471-73c An Apostle
 tempera and gold on wood 32.1 x 23.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1471-73c Two Evangelists:

1471-73c Two Evangelists ( Saint John the Evangelist and the Author of Another Gospel ) from a predella
tempera with oil and gilding on poplar panels 31.5 x 47 cm
National Trust, Upton House, UK

1471-73c Two Evangelists ( Saint John the Evangelist and the Author of Another Gospel ) from a predella 
tempera with oil and gilding on poplar panels 31.5 x 47 cm 
National Trust, Upton House, UK

1472 Madonna and Child Enthroned
tempera on wood, gold ground 98.4 x 43.8 cm
 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1472 Saint Bartholomew
Pinacoteca del Castello sforzesco, Milano

1472 Saint Giovanni Evangelist
Pinacoteca del Castello sforzesco, Milano

1472 Saint Dominic
tempera on wood, gold ground 97.2 x 32.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1472 Saint George
tempera on wood with gold ground 38 x 13.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1472 Saint James Major, part of an altarpiece
tempera and tooled gold on panel
Brooklyn Museum, New York

1472 Saint Nicholas of Bari
oil on wood panel 96.2 x 32 cm
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

1472c Madonna and Child
tempera on wood 71 x 50 cm

1473 Saint Paul
tempera on wood panel 136 x 39 cm

1475 Two Apostles:

1475-80c Saint Anthony of Padua
oil on panel 151.8 x 49.8 cm
 Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA