Daniele Crespi Busto Arsizio circa 1597 - 1630 Milan

This striking image, depicting the struggle between Cain and Abel, is an early work of the artist, datable to circa 1618/20.  Its recent cleaning has allowed its assesment as an autograph work by the artist; Nancy Ward Neilson has confirmed the present canvas to an early work of the artist (in a document dated November 24, 2005). 

Despite his short career (the artist died in his early 30's), Crespi's pictoral style developed markedly, and drew on a wide spectrum of sources.  This Cain and Abel shows traits of his work in the last years of the second decade of the 17th Century, with lingering mannerist traces of the influence of  Cerano and Giulio Cesare Procaccini.  Neilson has suggested that it is part of a group of drawings and paintings wherein Crespi was working through issues of anatomy and movement, and all are related in their sense of dynamism.  Included in this group are two drawings of anatomical studies in the Ambrosiana (see G. Bora, "Ruolo e significato del disegno di Daniele Crespi," in Fra Rinascimento manierismo e realtà, Florence 1984, p. 158, figs. 1, 4 -5) as well as a drawing in a private collection (N. Ward Neilson, Daniele Crespi, Soncino 1996, p. 85, D36, reproduced, fig. 61A).  These studies are not necessarily preparatory for the present canvas, but appear to show Crespi working through issues that he faced with the compostion.  A lost painting by Crespi of the Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, known through copies, demonstrates similar concerns (see Ward Neilson, op. cit., p. 71, no. A11, reproduced, fig. 86B).

A painting of this subject by Daniele Crespi was listed in the Arese collection, with similar measurements; a later addition of about 8 centimeters to the bottom of the canvas was removed in the recent restoration which brings the size listed in the Arese inventory quite close to the present measurements.  However, a crude print of the compositon of 1795  varies from the present canvas signifcantly, so this provenance can only be speculative.

We are grateful to Dr. Nancy Ward Neilson for providing the information outlined in this catalogue note.