GIUSEPPE BAZZANI (Mantua, 1690 - 1769) Portrait of a Lady Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 49.5 cm Provenance: Ravenna, Antonio Carli collection Bologna, private collection Rome, Tito Gobbi Collection Exhibitions: Bazzani exhibition, Mantua, 14 May ; 15 October 1950, no. 61 Bibliography: Zeri Archive, no. 73415 N. Ivanoff, in Emporium, 1949, CX, pp. 76-78 N. Ivanoff, Bazzani, exhibition catalogue, Bergamo 1950, p. 57, n. 79 L. Ozzola, Giuseppe Bazzanni, in Commentari, a.. II (January-March 1951), p. 44 N. Ivanoff, Last echoes of Bazzani's exhibition in Mantua, in Le arti, 1951, 2, p. 84 C. Tellini Perina, Giuseppe Bazzani, Florence 1970, pp. 89-90, fig. 167 F. Caroli, Giuseppe Bazzani e la linea d'ombra dell'arte lombarda, Milan 1988, p. 125, no. 154 The vivaciousness of the colours and the vibrant flowing light make the work one of the artist's best mature creations. Flavio Caroli, in fact, places it around 1750, extolling its very high quality, able to compare with the best international portraiture. Indeed, the painting expresses an elegant grace juxtaposed with an extraordinary expressive boldness, dating back to the years of the author's greatest activity, when in addition to painting vast decorative cycles in palaces and churches, he was also engaged as a professor of painting at the newly founded Mantua Academy. His style, which at times intersects with that of Giovan Battista Pittoni and the Guardi brothers, shows clear debts to the art of Rubensi and the great masters of the 16th century Veneto, even going so far as to reinterpret Bernardo Strozzi's skilfully reworked brushstrokes. But in this case the outcome goes beyond contemporary French painting in the manifest nonchalance of the effigy, which is as modern as ever and we might say topical.