(Verona 1571–1630)
The Holy Family with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist,
oil on canvas, 89.5 x 118.5 cm, framed

Literature:
S. Marinelli, Percorso nel Seicento Veneto, in: Aldèbaran VI, Verona 2021, pp. 71–74, fig. 1 (as Sante Creara)

The present painting relates to a composition by Creara of the Madonna and Child in a Venetian private collection (op. cit. Marinelli, 2021, p. 73, fig. 2). Marinelli also mentions another smaller version with a landscape background, conserved in the Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona (inv. no. 436, oil on canvas, 75 x 86 cm).

Marinelli dates the present painting to after Creara’s visit to Florence in 1597, where he travelled with his master Felice Brusasorci, and following Rubens’ visit to Verona in 1602. The shades of red in the present composition are reminiscent of Rubens, as well as being similar to those used by Alessandro Turchi, who was Creara’s companion in Brusasorci’s workshop. In general, the colour spectrum used in the present work corresponds to that used by Felice Brusasorci’s workshop, which Creara led until 1605.

The Infant Saint John seen from behind, pointing to the Christ Child with raised forefinger, was also part of the artist’s typical repertoire. The two capricious boys in the present painting give the composition a playful character, implying that the artist was not interested in following the precepts of the Counter-Reformation which probably led to Creara’s expulsion from Verona’s academic institutions in 1612, yet he was named as one of the city’s leading artists by Francesco Pola in Lo Stolone ovvero della sala pretoria veronese restaurata dal podestà Agostino Amulio, published in Verona in 1615. Creara also worked in Piacenza, Brescia, Padua and Vicenza. He was mainly active in churches in the province until his death in 1630 during the plague, from which the painter’s entire family perished. He remained unmarried and since all the male members of the family had died, the painter Pasquale Ottino, also a pupil of Felice Brusasorci and a friend of Creara, was appointed his sole heir.