Comparison 1: Other Works by Crespi
[Click either image to see a larger version.]
Giuseppe Maria Crespi
LEFT: The Centaur Chiron and Achilles (c. 1695-1700)
Oil on canvas, w124 cm x h126 cm (48.81" x 49.6")
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
RIGHT: The Flea (c. 1709-1710)
Oil on copper, w24 cm x h28 cm (9.4" x 11")
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy (to the left of Cupid and Psyche in the Virtual Uffizi)
At top we have two more paintings by Crespi, the first a mythological scene painted a few years before Cupid and Psyche, the other one of his many domestic scenes, painted perhaps a year or so after.
In the mythological scene (from the Greek story of Chiron teaching Achilles), we have Crespi being a bit more of a drama-llama: the figures' poses are far more intense and contorted, Chiron's size and horse-bottom definitely emphasize the myth-iness of the narrative, and while the lighting used is similar to Cupid's, there is no given light source, making the whole thing seem otherworldly.
In the small domestic scene (of a young woman searching herself for a flea), we've taken a hard turn into the ordinary. The pose is natural (to an extreme), and the setting is so mundane as to border on slovenly. The light has been softened and diffused just enough to suggest realism, although this work was also painted on *copper*, which may account for some of the warmth showing through. Crespi ultimately did many of these domestic pictures (including some variants on the flea theme) and became well-known for them: he was also a caricaturist, and seems to have enjoyed this sort of grounded observation of real people, real spaces, real habits and quirks.