Lot 359: AN OVAL TERRACOTTA RELIEF OF THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS

AN OVAL TERRACOTTA RELIEF OF THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
ATTRIBUTED TO GIUSEPPE MAZZA, BOLOGNA (1653-1741), LATE 17TH EARLY 18TH CENTURY
In a later giltwood frame
14½ in. (37 cm.) high, 15 in. (38 cm.) wide; 16½ in. (42 cm.) high, 22 in. (56 cm.) high (framed)

with Giuseppe Mazzoli, Bologna, 1964.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF PROFESSOR AND MRS. CLIFFORD AMBROSE TRUESDELL (LOT 359)

Although unsigned, this terracotta can convincingly be attributed to Mazza based on two closely related reliefs of the same subject. The present subject was clearly a popular one for Mazza as he returned to it several times in the late seventeenth century. Mazza, who trained in the workshop of Lorenzo Pasinelli, completed his first major project on the stucco decoration in the Manzoni Chapel in San Giacomo Maggiore in 1681. By 1692 he was already receiving commissions from Prince Johann Adam of Liechtenstein, for his celebrated sculpture gallery in Vienna.

The first, a terracotta in the Boschi Collection, signed and dated 1675 when Mazza was still in the workshop of Passinelli, is considered by Riccòmini to be his earliest signed work (E. Riccòmini, Ordine e vaghezza: scultura in Emilia nell'età barocca, Bologna, 1972, no. 86, ill. 266). It differs from the present relief as it is rectangular and also as there is a female figure in the background instead of another shepherd.

The second related version of this scene is part of the circular stucco reliefs of the Mysteries of the Rosary in Corpus Domini, Bologna (ibid., no. 104, ill. 244). The monument to the Fontana family, where these reliefs by Mazza are installed, is dated 1692. The church was badly damaged during World War II, so Riccòmini's detailed illustrations are essential for comparison. Riccòmini calls them 'among the happiest inventions of Mazza and certainly not subject to any supervision by Franceschini', who was supervising the interior plasterwork (ibid., p. 96).