Giovanni Crivelli Detto Il Crivellino Biography
Crivelli Giovanni (Iacopo), known as Crivellino, was the son of Angelo Maria, as for this reason also for Crivelli there are no documentary sources on the places and dates of birth and death. According to Lanzi (1809), he worked a lot for the court of Parma, the city where he died in 1760. In all likelihood C. began his pictorial activity in his father's workshop, from which he borrowed the animalistic theme, differentiating it however, according to ancient historians ( Lanzi), with a predilection for birds and fish; there are numerous attributional difficulties between C. and his father, often confused and not distinguished in the individual works. Arisi (1971, pp. 63, 90), Proceeding on stylistic bases, proposes and illustrates the terms of a collaboration between C. and the Piacenza F. Boselli. The precise testimony of the C.'s activity among the Savoys dates back to 1733 with the documentation in the Stupinigi account register of the payment of 160 lire for the eight fireplace screens in the central hall of the hunting lodge, agreed with Iuvarra, architect and superintendent of the construction (Gabrielli, 1966). Dated 1736 are two letters, published in the Vesme Cards, in which the writer, presumably C., addresses the Genoese Count Privara to obtain facilitations in embarking for Sardinia. For now, documents are missing on the last activity of C. indicated by Lanzi in the Parma area and defined as very copious.
