Carlo Ceresa

1609 – 1670

Italian painter. He was most distinguished as a portrait painter and represents the link between Giovanni Battista Moroni and the 18th-century paintings of Giacomo Ceruti and Giuseppe Ghislandi. Mostly recalled for his portraiture, he also painted altarpieces and religious works in an understated fashion. Such works as the Pietà with Saints and Donor (1628; San Giovanni Bianco, Santi Filippo e Giacomo), the Visitation with Sts Roch and Sebastian (San Gallo, nr Bergamo, Parish Church) and Christ Crucified with Four Saints (1630; San Antonio Abate, San Antonio Abbandonato) suggest that he trained with a local artist working in the Late Mannerist style, such as Enea Salmeggia (c. 1565-1626), Francesco Zucchi or Giovanni Battista Cavagna (active 1569-1613). These works also reveal the influence of 16th-century prints by such artists as Hendrick Goltzius and Aegidius Sadeler and of the art of Palma Giovane, Bartholomeus Spranger and the Cavaliere d'Arpino. The St Roch between Sts Bartholomew and Sebastian (1630; Pianca, Santi Antonio e Nicola da Bari), almost certainly an ex-voto painted on the outbreak of the plague, and the altarpiece of the Holy Family with Saints (1631; San Pietro d'Orzio, San Pietro) draw on similar sources.

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