Maestro della Cappella di Santa Margherita a Crea, or more simply Maestro di Crea, is the name given to the anonymous
Italian painter who was engaged by
Guglielmo VIII Paleologo, Marquis of Montferrat, to decorate the chapel of Santa Margherita in the Santuario della Madonna di Crea near
Serralunga di Crea (
Province of Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy). The work was performed during the years 1474–1479. The sanctuary stands on the highest hill of the
Basso Monferrato; later it would form the focal pont of the
Sacro Monte di Crea
The Sacro Monte di Crea (literally "Sacred Mountain of Crea", although it is built on a hill rather than a mountain) is a Roman Catholic sanctuary in the '' comune'' of Serralunga di Crea, Piedmont, northern Italy. It is reached via a steeply ...
.
The Master of Crea has in the past been identified with various known painters from north-west Italy, and particularly with
Macrino d'Alba. However, stylistic similarities with the early work of the
Casalese painter
Giovanni Martino Spanzotti have led today's experts to identify him with that painter's father,
Pietro, or (more probably) with his brother,
Francesco.
The chapel frescos
On the rear wall of the chapel is a triptych portraying in
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
the ''Madonna col Bambino ed Angeli musicanti, affiancata da Santi'' (Virgin and child, with angelic musicians, flanked by saints) and, on the two wings,
donor portrait
A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or (much more rarely) her, family. ''Donor portrait'' usually refers to the portr ...
s of Guglielmo VIII Paleologo, his wife
Maria di Foix
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
*170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
*Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...
and their children.
The side walls depict scenes of torture from the ''Passio di Santa Margherita di Antiochia'' (
Saint Margaret of Antioch
Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina the Great Martyr ( grc-gre, Ἁγία Μαρίνα) in the East, is celebrated as a saint on 20 July in the Western Rite Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic Church and Anglicanism, ...
): in one the saint faces trial by fire, in another she is made to stand in a cauldron of boiling water.
On the chapel's vault are images of the four
Doctors of the Church.
Image:Margherita Crea 1.jpg
Image:Margherita Crea 2.jpg
Image:Margherita Crea 3.jpg
Other works
Other paintings now widely attributed to the Master of Crea include:
* A panel painting of Saint Catherine of Alexandria,
Museo Civico d'Arte Antica di Torino Museo may refer to:
* Museo, 2018 Mexican drama heist film
*Museo (Naples Metro)
Museo is a station on line 1 of the Naples Metro. It was opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. O ...
,
Palazzo Madama Palazzo Madama might refer to:
* Palazzo Madama, Rome
* Palazzo Madama, Turin
Palazzo Madama e Casaforte degli Acaja is a palace in Turin, Piedmont. It was the first Senate of the Kingdom of Italy, and takes its traditional name from the embelli ...
;
* The polyptych of Marco Scarognino,
Pinacoteca Civica
The Palazzo Chiericati is a Renaissance palace in Vicenza (northern Italy), designed by Andrea Palladio.
History
Palladio was asked to design and build the palazzo by Count Girolamo Chiericati. The architect started building the palace in 1 ...
,
Varallo Sesia
* The panel painting ''Adorazione del Bambino con S. Giovanni Battista e S. Domenico'',
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin;
References
External links
The initial version of this article was freely translated fro
this versionof its counterpart on the ''Italian Wikipedia''. That article cited the following work:
* "Di Fino Colorito", Martino Spanzotti e Altri Casalesi (a cura di Giovanni Romano con Alessandra Guerrini e Germana Mazza), Città di Casale Monferrato, 2004.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Master Crea
Crea, Maestro di
15th-century Italian painters
Province of Alessandria
Year of birth unknown