Cristoforo Terzi
1692–1743 · Italian · Baroque
The story
Little is firmly known about Cristoforo Terzi. He was born in Bologna in 1692 and died there in 1743, working in the late-Baroque manner of his city. He trained under Giuseppe Maria Crespi, the Bolognese master nicknamed 'lo Spagnuolo', whose dark, informal realism shaped a generation of local painters.
His documented output is small. One recorded work is a Saint Petronius kneeling before the Virgin, painted for the church of San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna, while a self-portrait carries his name into the Uffizi's gallery of artists' faces. The Venetian pastellist Margherita Terzi was a relative.
