Giacomo Ceruti

Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (13 October 1698 – 28 August 1767) was an Italian late Baroque painter, active in Northern Italy. He painted a variety of subjects, including portraits, religious and mythological scenes and still lifes. He is best known as a painter of large-scale genre scenes in which beggars, paupers, pilgrims, old people and simple craftsmen are depicted realistically in portrait form or engaged in their daily activities. This subject matter, which he treated with empathy, earned him the nickname Pitocchetto ('little beggar').

Life He was born in Milan. In 1711, he moved with his family, comprising his parents, a brother and four little sisters, to the town of Brescia, where they settled in the parish of Sant'Agata. The motives behind this move are unknown. Possibly the family had relatives in Brescia. While Ceruti commenced his artistic career in the city, it is likely that his initial artistic training had already started in Milan. This training was likely not a traditional apprenticeship in the form of copying painting examples and learning the principles of composition. His first attempts at history painting were rather clumsy, while he showed a great accomplishment in portrait and genre paintings. It is therefore likely that this initial training took place in contact with a Milan artist experienced in the latter two genres, such as the painter Antonio Lucini.

In 1717, at the age of 18, he married in Brescia Angiola Carozza, who was 10 years his senior. The couple had two children who both died in their infancy. These works were all lost or dispersed at the end of the 18th century. He also created altarpieces and Christian-themed paintings. Ceruti gave particular attention to this subject matter during the period 1725 to 1740, and about 50 of his genre paintings from these years survive.

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