Extreme Unction, from "The Seven Sacrements"
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 17 1/4 × 11 5/8 in. (43.8 × 29.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.95.85
Art Historical Context
This etching titled *Extreme Unction* captures one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, depicting the solemn administration of last rites to the dying. Created in 1767 by Lorenzo Zucchi after an original composition by the Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi, the print belongs to a series reproducing Crespi’s celebrated cycle *The Seven Sacraments*. Crespi, active in the late Baroque period, was known for his sensitive portrayals of everyday religious life, blending dramatic light with intimate human emotion. As an etching, the work demonstrates the medium’s ability to translat...
About the Artist
Giuseppe Maria Crespi|Lorenzo Zucchi · 1665–1747
Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665–1747) was an Italian painter of the late Baroque period whose innovative genre scenes and unorthodox approach to religious painting made him one of the most original artists of early eighteenth-century Bologna. Born in Bologna, he trained under Domenico Maria Canuti, Carlo Cignani, and in the tradition of the Carracci academy, but developed a markedly personal style tha...