Giuseppe Caletti

known as Cremonese, c. 1600 Ferrara - 1660 Cremona

The painter and etcher, Giuseppe Caletti, was a charming and talented minor master of the Italian Baroque. As a painter Caletti was probably self-taught and modelled himself on Titian and Dosso Dossi, whose style he attempted to emulate. His endeavours in this direction were so successful that during his lifetime collectors in Ferrara and Rome regarded his works as originals by the masters. Today, however, Caletti is best known for his small and rare corpus of prints, which are notable for their highly original, although occasionally bizarre iconography.