Carlo Ceresa

Carlo Ceresa (January 20, 1609 – January 29, 1679) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period active mainly around Bergamo.^[1] He was mainly known for his portrait paintings of local nobility and clergy which he executed in an austere, realist style. He also produced many Christian-themed history paintings which can be found in churches in the Bergamo region.^[2]

Ceresa was born in 1609 at San Giovanni Bianco, a town in the Brembana Valley in the province of Bergamo. His parents Ambrogio and Caterina were well-to-do people who had moved there from Valsassina. he was a pupil and then assistant of the Milanese painter Daniele Crespi, whose style and vocabulary lived on in his work after the master’s death in 1630.^[1] He married Caterina Zignoni from a prominent family. Through her he was able to access to other prominent families in Bergamo whose primary portraitist he would become.^[1]

He was active in the area of Bergamo and produced a large number of religious works characterised by a sober, understated approach combined with the vivid color of the Veneto school for the many churches and sanctuaries there. He was also a skillful portrait painter whose services were sought after by the noble families of the city. The naturalism pervading the depiction of his subjects recalls the work of Moroni and looks forward to Fra Galgario and Ceruti (Pitochetto). He died in Bergamo in 1679.^[3]

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