SEBASTIANO MAZZONI
Florence, 1611 – Venice, 1678
The Tribute Money
oil on canvas, cm 98×151,5
The recent rediscovery of this painting represents a significant addition to the oeuvre of one of the most intriguing and elusive artists in Florence in the 17th century. Known to Federico Zeri (Cat. Fototeca Federico Zeri, scheda no. 58150), this innovative and surprising painting fully reflects the eccentricity and inventiveness of the Tuscan master, beginning with its unprecedented compositional solution. The Gospel episode of the Tribute Money – in which Christ utters the famous phrase, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” – is approached by Mazzoni through a tightly packed assembly of expressive and agitated three-quarter-length figures compressed into a space reduced to the bare essentials. Within this setting, the painter also introduces, in the foreground, the enigmatic figure of a reclining nude youth. The markedly upward-looking perspective of the composition, particularly evident in this figure, led the scholar Paolo Benassai – author in 1999 of the monograph on the artist and of a study devoted to this painting – now included in the catalogue raisonné of the artist’ work – to suggest that the painting was intended to be viewed from below, perhaps serving as a ‘sovrapporta’ (a decoration above a door). According to the scholar, although comparisons may also be drawn with works dating from Mazzoni’s Florentine period, the canvas reveals “closer affinities […] with the works from the artist’s early maturity, executed his definitive move to Venice”. In this period Mazzoni emerged as an “original interpreter of the lesson of Bernardo Strozzi and a precursor of many Venetian tenebrosi”. Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine such creative force, such bold and unhinged handling of the brush, without taking into account the consequences of the artist’s arrival in the lagoon city, this “double madman” of Italian art – as Mazzoni desbribed himself, alluding to his activity as both painter and poet.
PUBLICATIONS:
“Catalogo Fototeca Fondazione Federico Zeri”, entry no. 58150.
“Sebastiano Mazzoni (1611 -1678)”, edited by Paolo Benassi, Edizioni Dei Soncino, Cremona, 2019, pp. 101 and 209.