Giacomo Ceruti: A Compassionate Eye

A thoughtful look at representations of people experiencing poverty in early modern Europe.
 
 The northern Italian artist Giacomo Ceruti (1698–1767) was born in  Milan and active in Brescia and Bergamo. For his distinctive,  large-scale paintings of low-income tradespeople and individuals  experiencing homelessness, whom he portrayed with dignity and sympathy,  Ceruti came to be known as Il Pitocchetto (the little beggar).
 
 Accompanying the first US exhibition to focus solely on Ceruti, this  publication explores relationships between art, patronage, and economic  inequality in early modern Europe, considering why these paintings were  commissioned and by whom, where such works were exhibited, and what they  signified to contemporary audiences. Essays and a generous plate  section contextualize and closely examine Ceruti’s pictures of laborers  and the unhoused, whom he presented as protagonists with distinct  stories rather than as generic types. Topics include depictions of  marginalized subjects in the history of early modern European art, the  career of the artist and his significance in the history of European  painting, and period discourses around poverty and social support. A  detailed exhibition checklist, complete with provenance, exhibition  history, and bibliography, provides information critical for the further  understanding of Ceruti’s oeuvre.