Sebastiano Mazzoni
(1611 - 1678) |
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Historical Narratives, Mythological Narratives, Art Work
| Name: |
Sebastiano Mazzoni |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Florence, Italy |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
1611 |
| Death: |
1678 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Historical Narratives, Mythological Narratives, |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
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| Style: |
Italian Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| One of the true eccentrics of the Florentine/Venetian school, Sebastiano Mazzoni shares some of the visionary qualities of his fellow Florentine, Francesco Furini. Born in Florence around 1611, he was, according to contemporary sources, a pupil of Cristofano Allori. Giovanni da S. Giovanni (Manozzi) may also have influenced him and he must certainly have seen the paintings of Furini. Sometime before 1648 {the dates for his altarpieces in the Venetian church of San Benedetto) Mazzoni arrived in Venice, having departed from Florence on account of some slanderous verses he had reportedly penned. There the paintings of Fetti, Strozzi, and Liss undoubtedly influenced him, but he clearly developed his own unique style. His San Benedetto Commending the Parish Priest to the Virgin (signed and dated 1648, Venice, San Benedetto) marks him as a mature master. His Madonna seems like a strange apparition, and the penumbral lighting adds to the hallucinatory effect. Mazzoni's haunting qualities were heightened in his second akarpiece for San Benedetto, San Benedetto in Glory (dated 1649). Here the hooded supplicant seems blown back by the swirling wind carrying St. Benedict to heaven, and the sweeping motion as well as the dynamic diagonals (not unlike what Valerio Castello* was developing in nearby Genoa) create a vortex that is nearly out of control. All equilibrium is abandoned in Mazzonfs best-known painting, his truly weird Annunciation (Venice, Accadcmia). With his swirling angel and cowering Madonna, Mazzoni took baroque painting toward a level of surrealism it would never broach again. Few dates elucidate Mazzoni's further development. His Banquet of Cleopatra (dated 1660, Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art) and his Virgin Appearing to Honorius III (dated 1669, Venice, Church of the Carmini) trace his eccentric vision. According to his biographers, he died at age sixty-seven from injuries sustained from falling down a staircase on 22 April 1678. Long forgotten, he remains much too neglected. |
Samples of Work
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