Giuseppe Bazzani
(September 23,1690 - August 18, 1769) |
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Art Work
| Name: |
Giuseppe Bazzani |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Mantua |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
September 23,1690 |
| Death: |
August 18, 1769 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
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Quick Facts
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Painter |
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Biography
| He was the son of the goldsmith Giovanni Bazzani and trained in the studio of Giovanni Canti (1653-1715). Giuseppe was a refined and cultivated artist (Tellini Perina, 1988) and as a young man profited from the rich collections of art in Mantua, studying the works of Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Romano, 16th-century Venetian painters, especially Paolo Veronese, and Flemish artists, above all Rubens. His earliest works, for example the Assumption, (reveal an affinity with contemporary Venetian painters such as Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Federico Bencovich and Andrea Celesti, but Bazzani rapidly absorbed the influence of Antonio Balestra, Domenico Fetti and most of all Rubens and Veronese. The inspiration of the last two artists is apparent in a number of works that may be dated in the 1720s and early 1730s. These include the Miracles of Pius V, the Conversion of a Heretic and the Healing of a Madwoman (all mid-1720s; Mantua, Mus. Pal. Ducale) painted for the church of S Maurizio in Mantua; paintings of St John the Evangelist, St Mark and St Luke (all late 1720s; Vasto di Goito, parish church); and the Baptism, the Ecstasy of St Aloysius Gonzaga (1729) and the Ecstasy of SS Francis and Anthony (1732; all Borgoforte, parish church). Seven paintings of scenes from the Life of Alexander the Great (Mantua, Mus. Pal. dArco), which date from c. 1738, were painted for Giacomo Biondi, one of the artists first patrons, and are distinguished by their theatrical splendour and awareness of a rich artistic tradition. This period culminated in the Baroque drama of the Delivery of the Keys to St Peter (1739; Goito, parish church), Bazzanis first documented work.The next two decades were a prolific period for Bazzani; he developed a lighter, more Rococo style, drawing closer to Giovanni Battista Pittoni and being influenced by the light and flickering brushwork of Giovanni Antonio Guardi and Francesco Guardi. Bazzani was also influenced by such Austrian painters as Paul Troger and Franz Anton Maulbertsch. In the early 1750s, in what is sometimes known as his lunar period, he painted a series of horizontal compositions in a night-time setting distinguished by an enchanted, moonlit atmosphere and silvery tonalities. Outstanding among these are the Virgin and St Clare and the Annunciation (both 1751-2; Revere, parish church); a series of canvases for the church of S Maria della Carita, Mantua, including the Judgement of Solomon and the Pool at Bethesda (1750-52); the Lamentation and the Deposition (both 1754; Villastrada, parish church).In 1752 Bazzani became a member of the Accademia di Belle Arti, Mantua, and c. 1757 he frescoed ceilings in the Palazzo Cavriani and the Palazzo Bianchi (now Vescovato), both in Mantua. The former depicts Apollo and the Muses, with allegorical figures of Fortitude, Charity and Faith; the latter represents the Triumph of Venus and Venus and Cupid. These mythological works are lighter and airier than the Alexander the Great series and are enlivened by bold foreshortenings. In 1767 Bazzani became Director of the Accademia. In his late years he abandoned his sparkling Rococo style and developed more sombre tonalities, with spotlit areas of darkness and sketchy, immaterial figures. The Agony in the Garden (1760-70; Bergamo, priv. col) conveys powerful emotion through dark colours illuminated by sudden flashes of light and is reminiscent of the art of Marco Ricci. Other paintings of this period, such as St Margaret of Cortona (1764; Mantua, S Maurizio) and the ovals of St Barnabas and St Paul (1768; Mantua, S Barnaba), express an intense, even visionary spirituality. In his last few years Bazzani suffered from the effects of a bad fall, which left him lame. |
Samples of Work
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