Melchiorre Gherardini Il Ceranino Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Melchiorre Gherardini known as Ceranino (Milan, 1607 – Milan, 1668) was an Italian painter. Born in Milan in 1607, his artistic career is strongly linked to the figure of Giovan Battista Crespi, known as Cerano, of whom he not only became a pupil, but also his son-in-law, marrying his daughter Camilla, also a painter. Read the full biography

Melchiorre Gherardini known as Ceranino (Milan, 1607 – Milan, 1668) was an Italian painter. Born in Milan in 1607, his artistic career is strongly linked to the figure of Giovan Battista Crespi, known as Cerano, of whom he not only became a pupil, but also his son-in-law, marrying his daughter Camilla, also a painter. After his death he inherited the workshop and home, where he appears to have lived with his wife since 1633, the year in which he also adopted his nickname, Ceranino, strongly desired by the painter in order to celebrate the memory of the great protagonist of the seventeenth century and of the Borromeo tradition Milanese. He died in 1668, after an intense artistic production of a mainly religious nature, which revived the Ceranesque schemes, enhancing the most scenographic part. After the master's death, he moved away from a dramatic imagination to embrace more cursive compositions embellished with elegant figures tending towards a reddish-brown color.