(Mantua 1690–1769)
The Education of the Virgin,
oil on canvas, 106 x 81 cm, framed

Provenance:
Marchese Capilupi Collection, Mantua;
art market;
Private collection, Austria

Literature:
N. Ivanoff (ed.), Giuseppe Bazzani, exhibition catalogue, Bergamo 1950, p. 71;
F. Caroli, Giuseppe Bazzani. L’opera completa, Milan 1988, p. 120, no. 143

The present painting belongs to the mature works of Bazzani and according to Caroli it should be dated to the late 1740s (see literature). During this period the artist’s palette, which had been characterised by the clear tones typical of the Rococo, became darker and more dramatic in quality. Indeed, this painting is entirely set within dark ochre-red tones: the monumental figure of Saint Anne emerges from a dark background and she is represented offering a book to the young Mary whose features are bathed in light. The figure of the Virgin’s mother, posed obliquely, with her head leaning back and a little to the right, with her gaze down-turned, recalls that of the Virgin in the Madonna enthroned with Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena in a private collection, dated to the same period (see op. cit. Caroli, 1988, p. 120, no. 143).

Giuseppe Bazzani received his early training in his native city of Mantua where he studied the works of Andrea Mantegna and Giulio Romano, as well as absorbing the influence of the great Venetian and Flemish masters, especially Veronese and Rubens. He was also influenced by Domenico Fetti, Federico Bencovich and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, and was aware of the vibrant luminosity in the works of Giovanni Battista Pittoni and Giambattista Tiepolo. In 1752 he became a member of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Mantova and in 1767 he became the Director.