Church of san giovanni evangelista (galbiate) - canvas depicting saint francis supported by an angel, in the chapel of san francesco (third chapel on the right). The painting, recently referred to the youthful years of daniele crespi (1597 - 1630) by francesco frangi, was restored in 1983 by claudio fociani. The attribution to daniele crespi, despite the archival evidence attributing it to cerano (g. B. Crespi cerano 1576 - milan 1633, the great celebrant of san carlo and author of many franciscan subjects) is based on the co-presence in this painting of procaccinian elements (the figure of the angel rendered with chromatic density typical of giulio cesare procaccini) and cerano elements (the face and hands of the saint modeled with a solid matter and struck on the surface by dense flashes of light which, in contrast with the livid tone of the flesh, reach a degree of dramatic intensity according to cerano's style). This co-presence is found in an early work by daniele crespi, such as saint anthony assisting the exaltation of the soul of saint paul the hermit in the basilica of san vittore al corpo in milan dating back to 1619. And it is precisely with this painting that galbiate's canvas connects, marking a fundamental stage in daniele crespi's career. The saint is represented with an impressive ecstatic and penitential intensity, in harmony with the macerated spirituality of the catholic reformation: saint francis is in a painful and pitiful attitude that seems to take on all human miseries in a gesture of suffering and total holocaust. This is a completely different atmosphere compared to the one that hovers around the poverello d'assisi in the literary texts and pictorial cycles of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: not the perfect joy and simplicity of heart, but rather the fleshlessness of the hands and face, the eye fixed in painful contemplation.
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