The Flea

Giuseppe Maria Crespi's The Flea, painted around 1710 and now in the Uffizi, is one of the most celebrated genre paintings of early eighteenth-century Italian art. A young woman in a state of undress searches for a flea — a subject of deliberate low comedy that Crespi elevated through extraordinary painting skill. The subject derives from a Dutch and Flemish tradition of intimate domestic genre scenes but acquires in Crespi's hands a distinctly Italian character, combining Bolognese academic technique with the freedom of observation associated with northern European genre painting. The painting stands as an emblem of Crespi's unique position: an Italian master who found beauty and drama in the mundane.

Crespi uses a very dark background to isolate the figure in a pool of warm, golden light reminiscent of candlelit Dutch interiors. The woman's white chemise glows against surrounding shadow. Handling is broad and assured in the drapery, tighter in the face and the searching, active hands.