By age 12 years, he apprenticed with
Angelo Michele Toni (1640–1708). From the age of 15–18 years, he worked under the Bolognese
Domenico Maria Canuti. The Roman painter
Carlo Maratti, on a visit to Bologna, is said to have invited Crespi to work in Rome, but Crespi declined. Maratti's friend, the Bolognese
Carlo Cignani invited Crespi in 1681–82 to join an
Accademia del Nudo for the purpose of studying drawing, and he remained in that studio until 1686, when Cignani relocated to
Forlì and his studio was taken over by Canuti's most prominent pupil,
Giovanni Antonio Burrini. From this time on, Crespi worked independently of other artists. His main biographer,
Giampietro Zanotti, said of Crespi: "(He) never again wanted for money, and he would make the stories and caprices that came into his imagination. Very often, he also painted common things, representing the lowest occupations, and people who, born poor, must sustain themselves in serving the requirements of wealthy citizens". Thus it was for Crespi himself, as he began a career servicing wealthy patrons with artwork. He is said to have had a
camera optica in his house for painting. By the 1690s he had completed various altarpieces, including a
Temptation of Saint Anthony commissioned by Count
Carlo Cesare Malvasia, now in
San Niccolò degli Albari. '' He journeyed to
Venice, but surprisingly, never to Rome. Bearing his large religious canvas of
Massacre of the Innocents and a note from Count
Vincenzo Rannuzi Cospi as an introduction, Crespi fled in the middle of the night to
Florence in 1708, and gained the patronage of the Grand Duke
Ferdinand III de' Medici. He had been forced to flee Bologna with the canvas, which while intended for the Duke, had been fancied by a local priest,
Don Carlo Silva for himself. The events surrounding this episode became the source of much litigation, in which Crespi, at least for the next five years, found the Duke a firm protector. An eclectic artist, Crespi was a
portrait painter and a brilliant
caricaturist, and he was also known for his
etchings after
Rembrandt and
Salvator Rosa. He could be said to have painted a number of masterpieces in different styles. He painted few frescoes, in part because he refused to paint for
quadraturists, though in all likelihood, his style would not have matched the requirements of a medium then often used for grandiloquent scenography. He was not universally appreciated, Lanzi quotes Mengs as lamenting that the Bolognese school should close with the
capricious Crespi. Lanzi himself describes Crespi as allowing his "turn for novelty at length to lead his fine genius astray". He found Crespi included caricature in even scriptural or heroic subjects, he cramped his figures, he "fell into mannerism", and painted with few colours and few brushstrokes, "employed indeed with judgement but too superficial and without strength of body".
The Seven Sacraments One celebrated series of canvases, the
Seven Sacraments, was painted around 1712, and is now in the
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister,
Dresden. It was originally completed for Cardinal
Pietro Ottoboni in Rome, and upon his death, passed to the Elector of
Saxony. These imposing works are painted with a loose brushstroke, but still maintain a sober piety. Making no use of hieratic symbols such as saints and putti, they utilize commonplace folk to illustrate sacramental activity. ==Crespi and the genre style==