The painter Giulia Crespi was born around 1583, and shared a workshop with her brother, Giovanni Battista Crespi, called Il Cerano. She is last documented in 1628. Although scant information survives regarding her life and career, there is ample evidence of her skill as a painter owing to her many works recorded in important collections. In the seventeenth century a Saint Francis by the painter is mentioned in the collection of Manfredo Settala; the inventories of Giovanni Carlo Doria, one of the greatest collectors of his age, contain three of her works; and a Head of John the Baptist by her was recorded in the collection of the Cardinal Scaglia. At the end of the eighteenth century in the inventory drawn up at the death of another great collector, Count Giacomo Carrara, there is mention of a “Woman dressed in military style in the act of cutting her hair [therefore probably Berenice] by the painter known as the Milanese Cerrani.”
As none of these works have been traced, great importance must be attached to the signature in the left corner of the present canvas, as it is Giulia’s only securely attributed work and thus the only available point of departure for any understanding or reconstruction of her oeuvre. Although the painting had long been known to scholars as a work by Cerano, a cleaning treatment carried out on the occasion of the monographic exhibition on Cerano held in Milan in 2005 revealed the presence of the signature “Giulia / CA”, which is inscribed upon the sickle hanging from the saint’s belt. The compositional of the work clearly derives from a model by Cerano, replicated several times within the workshop. Identical in terms of the setting is an altarpiece found in the parish church of Busto Garolfo in which Saint Isidore is shown full-length. Yet though the work clearly correlates in compositional and indeed stylistic terms with works in the much more well understood corpus of her more famous brother, certain elements seem to be distinct to Giulia, in particular the dense and luminous impasto in the face.
A terminus post quem for the execution of the present painting is the canonization of Saint Isidore, which took place in 1622 and was long advocated by the King of Spain Philip III, who was particularly devoted to the Spanish peasant saint. Therefore the work can be understood as a mature work by the artist: while Cerano died in 1632, his sister Giulia, is last recorded in 1628, and it seems possible that perished in the plague of 1629/30.
Saint Isidore was born in 1070 to a peasant family near Madrid, and worked as a day labourer on the farm of the wealthy John de Vergas at Torrelaguna. Isidore and his wife Maria lived a model of simple Christian charity and faith. He prayed while working and shared all he had with those even poorer than himself. He died in 1130 and, as noted above, was canonised in 1622. Isidore is typically portrayed as a peasant with a sickle or staff, and he and his wife are venerated both in Spain and throughout the Catholic world for their exemplary commitment to family, love for the land, service to the poor and deep spirituality.