Fr : version française / En: english version
mheu, Historical Museum of the Urban Environment
Inside a Kitchen
Carlo Antonio Crespi
18th century
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Parmigiani, Bedonia, Italy
© Dist RMN / Georges Tatge
View this work in the exhibition Fire
The work
Instead of depicting the feast taking place upstairs, Crespi shows us the inside of the kitchens, especially the preparation of the meats, which were boiled or roasted at length at the time. This atypical representation of domestic work shows the influence of the artist's father. Giuseppe Maria Crespi was one of the first famous painters to depict scenes of daily life, a genre reserved until then to minor artists.
The artist
Antonio Crespi, born in Bologna in the early 18th century, was one of four sons of the great Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi, with whom he trained. Less talented than his father or his brother Luigi, who grew up to become a renowned painter and writer, Antonio made a career of producing religious works for his native city.