In the second half of the sixteenth-century the brothers Giulio, Antonio and Vincenzo Campi were leading painters in the North-Italian town of Cremona. They supplied religious paintings to a wide range of widely divergent clients, both in their hometown and in other towns in the dukedom of Milan. Their work is characterized by a remarkable choice of subject matter, a high degree of naturalism, and a presentation that is aimed directly at the viewer.

With the religious paintings of the Campi brothers as its point of departure, this book explores the way portrayals were used within the context of the Catholic reformation. It was in sixteenth-century northern Italy, where influences from northern Europe and central Italy converged, that religious reforms translated themselves in an unusual way into visual art. Ample attention to the original public paintings brings to light the role these works played in the religious perception of their earliest users.