Lot 223: Francesco Polazzo (Venice 1683-1753)

The Madonna and Child with Saint Francis of Assisi
oil on canvas
37 1/4 x 27 1/4 in. (94.7 x 69.3 cm.)

We are grateful to Professor Ugo Ruggeri for proposing the attribution on the basis of photographs.
Professor Ruggeri considers the painting 'un bel dipinto' and a homage to the Madonna of Saint Matthew by Annibale Carracci (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie), which Francesco Polazzo could well have studied during his stay in Bologna and which he reproduced in the present work, omitting Saint Matthew and Saint John the Baptist. As Zanetti remarks, 'avea egli fatti i suoi studi nelle scuole di Bologna, e dopo erasi fatto seguace dello stile di Sebastiano Rizzi' (A.M. Zanetti, Della Pittura Veneziana, 1771, cited in L. De Rossi, Francesco Polazzo, Bergamo, 2005, p. 27). Polazzo's style became even more complex and refined as he combined Emilian influences with an attentive study of the oeuvre of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Held in high regard by his contemporaries as a painter and restorer, Polazzo was active in Venice and Bergamo. There he was recommended by Sebastiano Ricci in glowing terms to the refined connoisseur, count Giovanni Giacomo Tassis: '[...] un mio amico pittore, ma un buon pittore in vero, che è stato altre volte a Bergamo, ed ha fatto conoscere la sua abilità. Quando questo virtuoso arriva, se V.S. illustr. non ha fatto accomodar li suoi quadri pregiudicati dal tempo, li faccia accomodar da questo bravissimo uomo, e che unico pare in tal materia. Questo si chiama il signor Francesco Polazzo' (De Rossi, op. cit., p. 302).

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