some unpublished paintings by giuseppe bazzani

Some Unpublished Paintings by Giuseppe BazzaniAuthor(s): Chiara PerinaSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Jun., 1964), pp. 227-231Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3048167 .

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NOTES 227

ultimate reality-reality to which both Plato and the Gospels well attest.53

Therefore, Titian does not permit his Venus-Caritas figures and their symbolic landscapes merely to argue the dual aspects of pagan and Christian love. The funerary but vitalistic monument, with its beautiful women, not only lies astride the canvas, filling its frontal plane, but also continues the diagonal that begins on the ground, with the tip of the gown of the unclothed figure, moves up across the fountain, and ends in the sky with the flaming vase held by Venus Caelestis. This diagonal stitches the two halves of the painting together and magnetizes all its parts to the symbol of eternal life. Thus Titian divides his painting into two distinct parts to define their inherent sequence and unity.

Like Raphael's frescoes in the Stanza della Segna- tura, which unite all gods and all truth within a single cult,54 Titian's allegory of love so reconciles the dual aspects of Platonic and Christian love that each is admired and followed with equal fervor. Sacred and Profane Love records the reconciliation that humanists, scholars, poets, painters, and philosophers had dreamed of and striven for since the time of Petrarch, the reconciliation that the optimistic and triumphant clas- sicism of the High Renaissance demanded.

C. W. POST COLLEGE, LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY

53. See John Charles Nelson, Renaissance Theory of Love, pp. 69ff. Cf., also, Edgar Wind, op.cit., p. 121.

54. See Jean Seznec, op.cit., pp. 143-147.

SOME UNPUBLISHED PAINTINGS BY GIUSEPPE BAZZANI

CHIARA PERINA

The development of Giuseppe Bazzani's style, known until a short while ago through a few dated works, has recently been more clearly defined by mod- ern critics, notably by Ivanoff who made a careful study of the paintings along lines which may, for the most part, still be accepted today.

Since 1950, when an exhibition made it possible to study and compare a great many works by Bazzani,

and to publish the first critical catalogue of his large oeuvre, many important contributions have helped to enlarge and deepen our knowledge of the artist's per- sonality, his cultural and artistic background, and his ties with contemporary styles of painting.' In fact, although Bazzani lived in Mantua, once a famous cap- ital but now in a period of decline, his artistic purpose was never limited by a provincial cultural outlook. He managed to participate in various, complex currents of painting, perhaps through short, undocumented jour- neys, but certainly through the extensive knowledge provided in the form of engravings. Through the paintings of Castiglione, it is possible to see in Baz- zani's work significant similarities with trends formu- lated in Liguria; with Piedmontese concepts, as shown by interesting parallels with the works of his contemporary, Guala da Casale;2 with the Venetian style, for the close analogies with the works of Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Federico Bencovich, and Gian An- tonio Guardi;3 and, finally, with the Austrian school, as revealed in Bazzani's influence on Maulpertsch.4

Through the kindness of E. Arslan, I was able to see two paintings whose present whereabouts are not known, and which I propose to include in Bazzani's oeuvre: Christ and the Magdalen (Fig. I) and Christ on the Road to Emmaus (Fig. 2). Perhaps they were once companion pieces since the shape of both is rec- tangular, but, in any case, they share stylistic similarities and have close affinities in pictorial aims. Although these works are certainly Bazzani's, it is rather dif- ficult to place them chronologically, because there are few well-dated paintings to show us the development of his style.

Let us try to summarize the fundamental phases of his development. On the evidence of the Mantuan biographer, Pasquale Codde,5 the paintings of the Via crucis (Way of the Cross) in San Barnaba, Mantua' have been ascribed to Bazzani's youth when he was apprenticed to Giovanni Canti of Parma. These early pictures are rather uneven in quality, but one does find some inspired passages and expressionist tendencies which shed light on the young painter's artistic ed-

I. L. Ozzola, "Giuseppe Bazzani," Commentari, 1951, pp. 43ff.; M. Muraro, "I1 posto di Giuseppe Bazzani," Arti, I, 1951, pp. 52ff.; N. Ivanoff, "Ultimi echi della mostra di Giuseppe Bazzani a Mantova," Arti, II, 1951, pp. 84f.; T. Pignatti, "Venetian Seicento and Settecento Drawings: An Uffizi Exhibition," Burlington Magazine, October, 1954, p. 314; G. Copertini, "Note su Giuseppe Bazzani e Giuseppe Maria Crespi," Parma per l'arte, v, 1955, PP. 36ff.5 H. S. Francis, "A Pieta" by Giuseppe Bazzani," Bulletin of the Cleve- land Museum, XLIII, 1956, pp. 44ff.; J. Bialostocki, exhibition catalogue, Italian Painting of the 17th and p8th Centuries in Polish Collections (in Polish), Warsaw, 1956, pp. 23f.; A. Riccoboni, "Un capolavoro di Giuseppe Bazzani," Emporium, CXXv, 1957, pp. I4ff. (I disagree with Riccoboni, who at- tributes this Pieta to Bazzani, because it seems to me to be different from the artist's known works); F. Valcanover,

"Note venete alla mostra della pittura italiana nelle collezioni polacche," Emporium, cxxv, 1957, p. 256; J. Feny6, "Des- sins italiens inconnus," Bulletin du Musie National Hongrois des Beaux-Arts, xIII, 1958, pp. 59-86; N. Ivanoff, "Ignoti disegni lombardi del Sei e Settecento," Emporium, cxxIx, 1959, pp. 8ff.; L. Puppi, "Un disegno noto e un dipinto poco noto del Bazzani," Paragone, 153, 1962, pp. 39ff.; E. Arslan, "Contributo al Bencovich e al Bazzani," Commentari, 11, 1962, pp. 12Iff.

2. G. Testori, "Introduzione al Guala," Paragone, 55, 1954, pp. 23-36.

3. E. Arslan, op.cit., pp. 2 Iff. 4. M. Muraro, "Importanza dell'ambiente viennese e

della provincia prealpina nella pittura veneziana del '700," Atti del I convegno internazionale per le arti figurative, Flor- ence, 1948, p. 141.

5. P. Codde, Memorie biografiche . . . dei pittori, scultori, architetti ed incisori mantovani, Mantua, 1837, P. 12.

6. N. Ivanoff, Bazzani (Catalogue of the Exhibition), Mantua, 1950, p. 43, Nos. 1-14. (Hereinafter, Ivanoff).



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9. G. Bazzani, Crucifixion. Cavriana, Parish church io. G. Bazzani, Pentecost. Cavriana, Parish church (photo: Giovetti. Courtesy Istituto Carlo d'Arco, Mantua) (photo: Giovetti. Courtesy Istituto Carlo d'Arco, Mantua)



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228 THE ART BULLETIN

ucation. His training was oriented presumably on late Baroque styles revived originally by the local Seicento tradition from Rubens to Fetti and lastly to Castiglione, dramatic effects being prominent as well as an impetuousness that disdains the pictorial and formal acquiescence which may have an adequate counterpart in the contemporary paintings of Magnasco.

According to Ivanoff's convincing thesis, the paintings representing the Legends of Alexander the Great, now in the Palazzo d'Arco, Mantua, belong to the next period.' These works which aspire to grandiose scenic designs, reflect Bazzani's ties with the works of contemporary painters, primarily with Balestra, Giambettino Cignaroli, and Dorigny whose influences could easily have reached him from neighboring Verona.

We may place after 1732 the paintings still pre- served in the parish church at Borgoforte-the Bap- tism of Christ,' the Ecstasy of S. Luigi Gonzaga9- and the fifteen oval paintings (now dispersed)"' representing the Mysteries of the Rosary in which the contacts with Balestra and Cignaroli are still very much alive. This is not surprising since Balestra's painting of the Virgin Immaculate of 1736," and Giambettino's Death of St. Joseph of 1740,12 were painted for the church of the Immaculate Conception of the Filippini in Mantua."s

The altarpiece of the Baptism of Christ in the church of San Giovanni del Dosso in Mantua is very significant for it may be dated ca. I737.'" A date for this

painting in the last years of the fourth decade would not be inappropriate, for it compares with a work that is safely dated at this time and has close stylistic affinities with our painting: the Giving of the Keys of 1739 in the parish church at Goito.'5 The latter seems very close to the Baptism in its compositional breadth which retains a Seicento design, and in the full-bodied quality of the brush-strokes. I think it advisable to place near this period of the artist's full maturity the paintings of Christ and the Magdalen (Fig. I) and Christ on the Road to Emmaus (Fig. 2) which, together with the Baptism in San Giovanni del Dosso, the Giv- ing of the Keys in Goito, and (as maximum limit because it may be dated ca. I742) the Sermon of the

Baptist in the parish church at Gazoldo degli Ippoliti,x"

constitute an homogeneous group still inspired by Baroque schemes in the tradition of Rubens and the School of Bologna.

In fact, the opulent shape of the clearly drawn, plastic figures, so different from the softened forms of those painted in the last years, the compact and glossy handling of colors not yet dissolved in the lunar atmosphere so typical of his late works, the splendid decorum of the drapery, which will be translated into nervous, quivering strokes in paintings of his mature period, and, finally, the precise alternation of light and shade conceived in naturalistic terms and with plastic vision, seem to recommend a date ca. 1737-1740, a

period when Seicento trends were happily being revived. In these works Bazzani's style comes into focus, founded in part on the art of Rubens whose florid sensuality appears to have been filtered through Fetti's personal achievement, in part through his ties with the Bolognese school, following his study of Ludovico Car- racci,'7 Carlo Bonomi,s8 and Grechetto, some of whose motifs are adopted in the unexpected appearance of landscape and animals in Christ on the Road to Em- maus (Fig. 2).

The Doubting Thomas (Fig. 3) which appeared in the Finarte sale in May 1962,19 seems close in

style to the Sermon of the Baptist in the church at Gazoldo degli Ippoliti and may, therefore, date ca. I742. Bazzani had painted the subject in a picture, now in the Kress Collection, New York (exhibited in I950), which Ivanoff calls a youthful work because of the glossiness of the color.20 Comparing our painting with the picture in the Kress Collection, one sees notable differences. The composition, which is less crowded with figures, gains in dramatic essence. The mellower, softer modeling, together with the compositional simplification, suggests a later date, close to the aforesaid Sermon of the Baptist. It is clear that the inclined head of Christ holding the Cross in the Doubt- ing Thomas is dependent upon that of St. John in the Sermon of the Baptist.

Bazzani's art develops in the fourth and fifth decades of the century when he frees himself from the vestiges of Seicento aesthetic, producing ca. 1751-52 such works as the Madonna with Sta. Chiara and the An- nunciation in the parish church at Revere,21 the Mira-

7. Ibid., p. 48, No. 37; P. 51, Nos. 46-47; figs. 8-13. 8. Ibid., p. 49, No. 39; fig. 15. 9. Ibid., pp. 44-45, No. 19; fig. 16. io. We may recall some paintings of the Mysteries of the

Rosary formerly in the parish church at Borgoforte which are identified with existing works in private collections: Coronation of the Virgin (Ivanoff, fig. 27; whereabouts un- known); Visitation in the Prampolini Tirelli Collection, Rome (Ivanoff, p. 56 No. 76); Crucifixion, Assumption, and Flagellation in the Prampolini Tirelli Collection (Ivanoff, p. 57 Nos. 78, 82, 83); Resurrection and Ascension in the Carli Collection, Ravenna (Ivanoff, p. 57 Nos. 8o-84) 5 Agony in the Garden and Christ Among the Doctors in private collections (Ivanoff, p. 67); Pentecost in a private collection (cf. A. Morandotti, Cinque pittori del settecento, Rome, I943, p. 95; Ivanoff, op.cit., p. 76).

ix. E. Battisti, "Antonio Balestra," Commentari, I, 1954, PP. 34, 39-

12. F. R. Pesenti, "11 ritrovamento di tre libri di disegni di Giambettino Cignaroli," Arte lombarda, I, 1959, P. 128.

13. G. Cadioli, Descrizione delle pitture, sculture ed archi- tetture, che si osservano nella citta di Mantova, e ne' suoi contorni, Mantua, 1763, p. 69. At the end of the 18th century the paintings were placed in the Duomo, Mantua.

14. Ivanoff, op.cit., p. 5o No. 44; fig. 28. I5. Ibid., p. 45 No. 2o0 fig. 29. 16. Ibid., p. 49 No. 38; fig. 35- 17. Mostra dei Carracci (Catalogue of the Exhibition),

Bologna, 1956, pp. IoLf., I39f. I8. Maestri della pittura del seicento emiliano (Catalogue

of the Exhibition), Bologna, 1959, p. 251. I9. Finarte. Vendita pubblica all' asta di opere d'arte

antica, Milan, May I5-i6, 1962, Catalogue No. 33. 20o. Ivanoff, op.cit., p. 54 No. 65; fig. 34. 21. Ibid., p. 61 No. Ioo; fig. 88; pp. 74-75.



NOTES 229

cles of Pius V in San Maurizio, Mantua, and the pictures in Santa Maria della Cariti, Mantua.22 In this period the compositional schemes are looser, lighter, and the handling of color more precious and subtle, so different, as Ivanoff rightly suggested, from the "atmospheric sensitiveness of the Venetians,"23 and so near, as Puppi keenly observed,24 to the taste for shifting, languid colors of the Veronese tradition.

In this period may be placed the series of fifteen oval-shaped paintings depicting the Mysteries of the Rosary, originally situated in the intrados of the vault- ing of a side altar in the church at Cavriana. These small paintings, fortunately saved in extremis by resto- ration, are being exhibited for the first time, but not without some discreet reservation on my part, because they show considerable unevenness in artistic quality. They are not altogether legible and some parts are irreparably lost. It is probable that Bazzani, to whom the conception of the individual compositions may be attributed, availed himself of assistants. As I shall try to demonstrate, he was now an old man, "storpio e di mal concia salute,"25 and hard pressed with commissions. Perhaps he was helped by the Mantuan Francesco Maria Raineri, called Lo Schivenoglia, who had been his fellow-student with Canti, and of whom it was now said that he was particularly adept "nel dipingere battaglie, paesi e piccole storiette.'21

Notwithstanding the unsatisfactory state of preserva- tion, and the clearly uneven aesthetic quality, I think the series merits consideration, both because the artist attained a remarkable expressiveness (in those parts which I believe he worked on alone) and because in the fifteen episodes Bazzani returned to subjects that he had painted in his youthful and mature years. The

Mysteries of the Rosary at Cavriana are all the more

significant and remarkable in the artist's oeuvre for their pictorial freedom and freshness. Facilitated by the small size of these works, and by the fact that

many of them were viewed at a moderate distance from below, Bazzani paints with unusual freedom of the brush and imaginative inventiveness. With a lighter, quicker touch, he seems to recapture the humorous, grotesque mode of the Via Crucis in San Barnaba, over-

coming the academic conformism that spoils many of his late works. But if the paintings in San Barnaba, so reminiscent of Callot and Magnasco, spring from a feverish, youthful impetuousness showing all his lim- itations and immaturity, the ovals at Cavriana reveal a thoughtful emancipation from academic habits, a

freedom all the more conspicuous because of the artist's more numerous, stimulating experiences and more con- fident mastery of his expressive means.

The Annunciation reveals the intervention of a hand that is not Bazzani's; nevertheless, such details as the angel's profile taken from the side perhaps at Pittoni's suggestion, and the typical draping of the Virgin's mantle, testify certainly to Bazzani's influence. The handling of the drapery folds in triangular shapes and with a continuous fragmentation of irides- cent planes, recurs also in the Visitation, a more sober and harmonious painting which favors numerous com- parisons. In fact, the embrace of Mary and Elizabeth recalls that of the Visitation in a private collection in Venice which can be dated around the middle of the century;27 the figure of St. Joseph holding the flower- ing rod recalls the same saint in the Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the Accademia, Venice,28 as well as that of the Flight into Egypt in the Carli Collection, Ra- venna,29 works executed during the fifth decade of the century, as Ivanoff has rightly indicated.

To this period we may assign the Nativity of the Cavriana series in which we see Bazzani's typical way of handling the drapery in triangular forms, and on the evidence of its relationship with the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Brass Collection,30 the Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the Accademia, and the Flight into Egypt in the Carli Collection. In the intimate

group of the Madonna bent over the Child we may note reminiscences of Correggio, but, in my opinion, this is not achieved directly, but rather through the interpretation of the Bassano brothers and, primarily, from Castiglione who had a notable influence on Baz- zani's art. Indeed, the traces of Van Dyck's style in Bazzani's art may be explained through Castiglione.

In the Purification of the Virgin (Fig. 4), so mar- velous for its full sweep of individual figures arranged in parallel diagonals, increasingly dynamic in the un-

dulating fullness of draperies, there are some parts which are rather weak, specifically, the dry handling of the figure of a priest on the extreme right. Never- theless, the inventiveness and some details such as the beautiful figure seen from the back holding doves, enlarged by the harmonious spread of a golden yellow mantle, seem to agree with the character of Bazzani's

paintings in the years ca. 1750-52: the Death of Saphira, formerly in the Hausmann Collection, Ber-

lin;3 the Miracles of Pius V in San Maurizio; the paintings in Santa Maria della Carith; and the Return

22. Ibid., p. 46 Nos. 25-26; fig. 63; p. 63 No. iio; fig. 68; p. 65 No. 114; fig. 70; p. 65 No. 115; p. 65 No. 117; p. 66 No. I2o; fig. 69; p. 70; fig. 71. See also N. Ivanoff, "Pitture inedite del Bazzani nella chiesa di S. Maurizio a Mantova," Bollettino d'Arte, I, 1950, pp. 93ff.

23. Ivanoff, p. 22. 24. L. Puppi, op.cit., p. 41. 25. P. Codde, op.cit., p. x6. 26. L. C. Volta, "Ristretto di notizie intorno a' piui illustri

pittori . . . mantovani," Diario per l'anno z777, pp. x6Sf. There are few extant works by Lo Schivenoglia who died in 1758 at the age of eighty-two. Only the St. Sebastian in

Sant' Andrea, Mantua may be attributed to him with certainty (cf. G. Cadioli, op.cit., p. 51). For other works attributed to Lo Schivenoglia, see Ivanoff, p. 64. See also: C. Volpe, "Per un profilo della Schivenoglia," Arte antica e moderna, 24, 1963, PP. 337-338; N. Clerici Bagozzi, "Per l'opera di Fran- cesco M. Raineri detto lo Schivenoglia," ibid., pp. 339-344.

27. A. Morandotti, Cinque pittori del settecento, Rome, 1943, p. 84 No. 62; Ivanoff, fig. 36.

28. Ibid., p. 63 No. 1o9. 29. Ibid., p. 56 No. 75; fig. 53. 30. A. Morandotti, op.cit., p. 82 No. 60; Ivanoff, fig. 37. 31. Ibid., fig. 61.



230 THE ART BULLETIN

of the Prodigal Son in the Prampolini Tirelli Collec- tion, Rome.32

The Presentation in the Temple, now rather spoiled and largely illegible, is also reminiscent of the above- mentioned works, especially the Death of Saphira. The lively faces of the doctors appear in a composition that seems devoted to an expanding melody of drapery forms, the color changing in precious touches of cad- mium-yellow, bottle-green, ruby-red, and silvery lights.

In the Flagellation (Fig. 5), Bazzani offers a new idea in compositional arrangement, one that is pica- resque in flavor and perhaps aims at scenic effects. The flagellants of Christ are sinister figures who pivot around him in the center of the composition, in a prison-cell whose desolation is evoked in the dismally bare walls, the iron-grill window, and an iron ring hanging from the wall. It is quite possible that Baz- zani took the idea from a well-known print by Callot in which we see the same setting as well as the arrangement of whirling figures. In the Flagellation at Cav- riana, Bazzani seems to revive the lashing, rude spirit of his youthful Via Crucis. Still the composition seems to be more carefully studied, the brushstrokes still nervous but giving indication of greater blending, while the color, consisting of deep tones of earth-green, seems to lean toward chiaroscuro effects, as in the paintings of Magnasco, emphasizing the curved postures of the figures.

We find a similar expressionist impetuosity in the Christ Crowned with Thorns (Fig. 6) where various characteristics of Bazzani's art are plainly visible. The figure of Christ, enveloped in the powerful whirlpool of drapery, recalls that of Caiaphas in the drawing of Christ and Caiaphas, dated 1747, in the Palazzo

d'Arco.3" Even the dog with its pointed, foxlike shape, has been borrowed from the drawing for the Cavriana painting. Likewise, the figure of the soldier composed on a diagonal-almost as confirmation of actual contacts with Bencovich-may be attributed to the period of the paintings in Santa Maria della Carita. In the works we find the same prevalence of nocturnal colors rendered in shades of sepia, olive-green, azure, and violet-red, as in the Chosen Soul Led to Heaven in the Kress Collection, New York,34 and the Death of St.

Joseph in the Museo del Palazzo Ducale, Mantua.85 These are all works of the late years which show the same alternation in diagonal axis, the same faces seen from an angle, and the typical way of breaking up the drapery into parallel folds.

The Agony in the Garden (Fig. 7) also exhibits characteristics which suggest that it should be placed among his late works. In fact, the setting is very similar to the Agony in the Garden formerly in the Podio Collection,36 Bologna which has been assigned to a

rather late period. Although there are variations in the postures of the sleeping Apostles, in the way the

figures bend over, and in the whirling, flashing touches of the brush which produce lyrical, atmospheric vibrations, the Cavriana painting has clear affinities with the painting formerly in the Podio Collection.

In the Road to Calvary (Fig. 8) there are some weak parts and also certain elements where the compositional links seem forced, causing us to wonder whether the whole painting is the work of Bazzani. But the conception, which compares with the analogous subject rendered in the Palazzo d'Arco, and the beautiful figures of the fallen Christ and the villain who pulls the rope-they being conceived with the swift- ness and essence of figures in the Death of St. Joseph and the Funeral of St. Joseph in the Kress Collection, New York"---seem to point to Bazzani as the artist. On the other hand, the mounted warrior and the

figure bending over the Cross are not free of a force- fulness that is slightly exaggerated, akin to caricature.

In the Crucifixion (Fig. 9), Bazzani returns to a

composition used previously in his early Pieth in the Duomo, Mantua,38 in the Deposition in the Orfano- trofio femminile of Mantua,"s and the Deposition in Santa Maria del Canossa, Mantua.40 In the Cavriana oval reappears the typical, triangular scheme adopted in these compositions which, although confined to small dimensions, reach the grandeur of dramatic

tragedy. Quite new in the composition is the introduc- tion of the unfurled standard thrust against the nocturnal atmosphere, a characteristic of the artist's mature period when he seems to reject all suggestions of architecture or landscape in favor of an abstract ground of darkness.

The artistic quality declines in the remaining five ovals: the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption, and the Coronation

of the Virgin. The Resurrection and the Ascension seem especially far removed from Bazzani's style, both because of the awkward figures and the inharmonious

compositions. On the other hand, the Pentecost (Fig. io) is redeemed by the beautiful group on the left. The back of a kneeling figure in the foreground and the apostle bending to receive the Holy Spirit recapture the inspiration of the paintings in Santa Maria della Carita' and the Return of the Prodigal Son in

the Prampolini Tirelli Collection, both of which be-

long after the middle of the century. Indeed, we find the same chromatic scale playing the range of subdued green, brown, and warm yellow, the same postures of figures bending forward in devout atti- tudes, and, finally, the same unfolding of billowing drapery folds illuminated with streams of light. More- over, in the faces immersed in a mysterious penumbra, I detect a foretaste of Bazzani's last works: the Bap-

32. Ibid., p. 44 No. i8; fig. 9i.

33. Ibid., p. 47 No. 27; fig. 74.

34- Ibid., p. 53 No. 61i fig. 87. 35. Ibid., p. 59 No. 92; fig. xx6. 36. Ibid., fig. ' 15.

37- Ibid., pp. 54-55 Nos. 63, 67; figs. 84, 85. 38. Ibid., p. 50o No. 45; fig. 39; N. Ivanoff, "Tre Pieta

di Giuseppe Bazzani," Emporium, cIx, 1949, pp. I 62ff.

39. Ivanoff, p. 70. 40. Loc.cit.



NOTES 231

tism of Christ in the Duomo, Mantua;4" the busts of St. Paul and St. Barnabas,42 presumably dated ca. 1768, in the church of San Barnaba.

The Assumption, for the most part now indistin- guishable, returns to the subject previously painted in similar compositions-pictures that are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,43 in the Robiati Collection, Milan,"4 believed to be a youthful work because of the warm color in the Rubens manner, and finally, in that of the Orfanotrofio femminile of Man- tua41 which seems to be near the works of 1750. Very little can be seen of the Cavriana painting, but there is still visible the melodious exuberance of draperies unfolding like so many precipitous whirlpools. Finally, the composition of the greatly deteriorated Coronation of the Virgin is quite original, for the figures are grouped at the edges of the space as though driven by a centrifugal force, leaving the center free for a triumphal exaltation of light.

In the last years of his life, the artist's main in- terest seems to be in effects of light, as witness the above-mentioned Baptism in the Duomo, the paintings in Santa Maria della Carith, and the St. Romuald in San Barnaba, Mantua.46 In these paintings the problem of light achieves various solutions. The Bap- tism in the Duomo, and the busts of St. Paul and St. Barnabas which probably should be dated in 1768, are coarse paintings, composed on the basis of contrasts in chiaroscuro, born of Bazzani's more profound re- ligious convictions, and close to a renunciation of the rococo charms in which he often indulges. We may group with these paintings whose anguished figures and the formal, severe conception have recalled the works of Rembrandt,4" the Holy Family in a private collection in Florence,41 the Pieth and the Deposition in a private collection in Venice,"4 the Story of the Consul Decius Mure in a private collection in Venice,"5 and the Martyrdom of St. James in the parish church at Piubega."5

A different approach to the problem of light may be seen in the paintings in Santa Maria della Carith and in the St. Romuald in San Barnaba. This treat- ment, rightly described as "lunar" because of the cold vibrations of light flickering over the faces in profile and creating silvery reflections on the drapery, seems to precede the severe phase of the Baptism in the Duomo and the ovals in San Barnaba while, at the same time, belonging to the Bazzani's late works. It suffices to consider that both the paintings in Santa Maria della

CaritA and the St. Romuald are mentioned in the guidebook of Mantua by Giovanni Cadioli published in 1763.52 Furthermore, the high praise given the St. Romuald, as one of the artist's great masterpieces, leads us to believe that this work had been known for some time, that it was greatly admired by his fellow-citizens and by the rather academic Cadioli himself. If the paintings in Santa Maria della Caritat may be dated ca. 1752, that is, to the time when repairs on the church are documented in an inscription in the church,53 the St. Romuald may perhaps be dated 1749-50 when the church of San Marco, where our painting was originally placed, was being renovated."

This work in which the opaline glimmer of light evokes an atmosphere of thoughtful contemplation has been rightly compared with the Vision of St. Romuald in the Prampolini Tirelli Collection."5 A painting which seems to me to be close to this more free composition is the Portrait of an Old Saint (Fig. I1), brought to my attention by E. Arslan but which has not as yet been published. Apart from a generally similar physiognomy that is easily recognized, the portrait shares with the St. Romuald the same silvery tonality and the nervous, flickering brush-strokes which fix the color in quivering lights. A similar freedom of handling may be found in the painting of a Female Saint (Fig. I2) which appeared in the Finarte sale in May 1962.5" It is absolutely typical of Bazzani. The bold foreshortening of the figure recurs in the Souls in Purgatory in the church at Castelgoffredo,17 in the Blessed Soul in the Museo del Palazzo Ducale, Mantua,58 and, above all, in the St. Cecilia in San Barnaba which may be conveniently dated in the late 1750's.59 ISTITUTO CARLO D'ARCO, MANTUA

41. Ibid., p. 58 No. 89; fig. 117. 42. Ibid., p. 65 Nos. 116, 118i figs. 118, 119.

43. Ibid., p. 52 No. 54; fig. 76.

44- Ibid., p. 59 No. 94; fig. 77.

45- Ibid., p. 59 No. 90; fig. 89. 46. Ibid., p. 62 No. 1o4; figs. 112, I13. 47. E. Arslan, op.cit., p. 126. 48. N. Ivanoff, p. 60 No. 95 fig. o104. 49. Ibid., pp. 78f.; figs. 107, Io8. 50. Ibid., p. 78; fig. Io9. 51. Ibid., p. 74; fig. i10o. 52. G. Cadioli, op.cit., pp. 82, 1MIS. 53. The inscription in Sta. Maria della Carita reads: Hoc

Templo / Intra quinquennium / majori luce collustrato / Marmoratis picturis / et substractis lapidibus / instructo / Archipresbyter et Parochia / Religione incrementum / posuerunt anno MDCCLII.

54. F. Amadei, Cronaca universale della cittd di Mantova, ed. by G. Amadei, E. Marani, G. Pratic6, and L. Mazzoldi, Mantua, 1954-1957, V, p. 361.

55. Ivanoff, p. 58 No. 86, fig. 114. 56. Finarte, op.cit., No. 69. 57. Ivanoff, p. 58 No. 87; fig. 42. 58. Ibid., p. 59 No. 91i fig. 51. 59. Ibid., p. 60 No. 98; fig. 41.

FIVE UNPUBLISHED DRAWINGS

BY CARLO CARLONI

AMALIA BARIGOZZI BRINI

Rather frequently in recent years there have been rumors about single drawings and even groups of drawings by Carlo Carloni (1686-1775) that have passed from private collections into the art market or vice versa. Unhappily these rumors never seem to reach the ears of the people most directly interested until the material has already changed hands and can



some unpublished paintings by giuseppe bazzani

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