Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1644-1725)

Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1644-1725) was an Italian sculptor working in the Bernini-derived Baroque style. He was born in Volterra and trained in Siena but spent his most of his adult working life in Rome, [A return trip to Siena 1677-79 is noted by his early biographer Pascoli.] where he was accepted into the workshop of Ercole Ferrata [According to Baldinucci, "Notizie dei professori del disegno... 18 (Florence) 1773:173, noted in Ursula Schlegel, "Some Statuettes of Giuseppe Mazzuoli" "The Burlington Magazine" 109 No. 772 (July 1967:386-95) p392, note 35; Melchiorre Caffà is also identified as an early master of Mazzuoli by Lione Pascoli (though Caffà died as early as 1667, and certainly before August 1668, when his heirs were testifying as to their claims, according to Wittkower).] and where he died. Mazzuoli was a member of the extensive workshop of Gian Lorenzo Bernini [Among his documented work on Bernini projects can be noted the clay "bozzetti" and wax models for casting in bronze connected with Bernini's Ciborium, discussed by Jennifer Montagu, "Two Small Bronzes from the Studio of Bernini" "The Burlington Magazine" 109 No. 775 (October 1967:566-571).] and carried the extravagant voluptuous, strongly contrasted full Baroque style of his master into the eighteenth century. Mazzuoli was among the co-workers who cooperated in Bernini's tomb of Pope Alexander VII Chigi (1672-78).When the grand commissions of Pope Clement XI and Benedetto Cardinal Pamphili, for twelve over life-size sculptures of the Apostles to fill the niches along the nave of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, the project was divided among all the premier sculptors of Rome. ["The largest sculptural task in Rome during the early eighteenth century," according to Rudolph Wittkower ("Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750, rev. ed. 1965:290); "the distribution for commissions is, at the same time, a good yardstick for measuring the reputation of contemporary sculptors."] Mazzuoli was assigned Saint Philip, and provided a sketch, as all the sculptors were, by Clement's favourite painter, Carlo Maratta. His work on the project extended from 1703 to its erection in its niche, 1712/15. [Robert Cahn, "A Counterproof from a Drawing of the Lateran 'Saint Philip'" "Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University" 38.1 (1979:11-13); Cahn is discussing a counterproof of a chalk drawing made of the finished sculpture as it was insdtalled, doubtless by one of Mazzuoli's numerous workshop assistants.] Robert Cahn observed "When "Saint Philip" is compared with other apostles in the series, it is clear that the somewhat old-fashioned, Berniniesque style manifested in Mazzuoli's single assignment was losing appeal." [Cahn 1979:11.]

A major commission of his later years was for the allegorical figures for the tomb of Ramon Perello (died 1720), Grand Master of the Order of Malta, in the church of Saint John, Valletta, Malta. [A terracotta "modello" is at the Musée du Louvre, first recognized by Schlegel 1967:393 fig. 10.] His son, also a sculptor, is generally distinguished as "'Giuseppe Mazzuoli the younger".

elected works, in approximate chronological order

*"Charity", 1673-75, for Bernini's tomb of Alexander VII, carried out under the direct supervision of Bernini. [A series of terracotta "bozzetti" and a bronze statuette in Berlin were associated with Mazzuoli's known figures of "Caritas" spanning his career, and attributed to him by Ursula Schlegel, "Some Statuettes of Giuseppe Mazzuoli" "The Burlington Magazine" 109 No. 772 (July 1967:386-95).]
*"Saint John the Baptist" and "Saint John the Evangelist", 1677-79., "in situ" flanking the high altar at the Church of Gesù e Maria, Corso, Rome. The church and the altar were designed by Carlo Rainaldi, [Touring Club Italiano (TCI), "Roma e dintorni" (1965:181.] who is likely to have provided sketches for the sculptures that form part of the altar he designed.
*Portrait busts of Fausto Cardinal Poli and Mons. Gaudenzio Poli, ca 1680, "in situ" in the Sacristy designed by Bernini (1641) of the Church of San Crisogono, Rome. [TCI, "Roma e dintorni" 1965:443.]
*"Clemency", ca 1684 an allegorical figure among the sculptures for the tomb of Clement X Altieri, Basilica of San Pietro, executed under the design direction of Mattia De Rossi (1684). [TCI, "Roma e dintorni" 1965:494]
*"Bust of Innocent XII", 1700, "in situ" in a niche in the apse of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome.
*"Bust of Clement XI", 1703, also "in situ" in a niche in the apse of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. [Both busts are noted in TCI, "Roma e dintorni" 1965:440]
*"Nereid", ca 1705-15 (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC); it was identified as "Thetis" when in the Samuel H. Kress collection, [Georges Wildenstein preserved the tradition of the French collector from whom they bought it, that it had come from a royal context in or near Naples] and attributed to the "school of Bernini."
*"The Death of Adonis", 1709 (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg).
*"Charity Triumphing over Greed", 1710-15 (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg); a bronze reduction is in the collections of Harvard University Art Museums. [ [http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/collections/objectDetail.smvc?sqNum=0# Illustration, on-line] .]
* (attributed to the workshop or circle of Mazzuoli) Paired busts: "Diana" and "Endymion", ca 1710-25 (Detroit Institute of Arts).
*"Death of Cleopatra", ca 1713 (Pinacoteca, Siena); a marble version of this group, ca. 1723, is in the grounds of the Opedale Coloniale, Lisbon, [Schlegel 1967:391, note 8] and a terracotta "modello" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [ [http://www.philamuseum.org/acquisitions/3.html "New AcquisitionS;: illustration, on-line] .]
*"Immaculate Conception", completed by September 1678, Church of San Martino, Siena. [The work, commissioned by Alessandro de Vacchi, was completed in Rome and sent to Siena (David L. Bershad , "Recent Archival Discoveries concerning Michelangelo's 'Deposition' in the Florence Cathedral and a Hitherto Undocumented Work of Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1644-1725)" "The Burlington Magazine" 120 No. 901 (April 1978:225-227).]
*"Apostles" standing on brackets for the piers of the Duomo di Siena (Brompton Oratory, South Kensington, London. The "Christ" and the "Virgin Mary" for the same positions were removed and have been lost; they are represented by gilded terracotta "modelli" (bought from Jacques Heim for the Royal Scottish Museum, 1982). [Note by Richard Verdi in "The Burlington Magazine" 124 No. 953 (August 1982:518. ]
*Portrait busts in medallions and allegorical figures of the four classical "Virtues", dated 1713 and 1714 but executed in 1715-17 and 1718-19 (for the portrait busts), [Robert Westin and Jean Westin, "Contributions to the Late Chronology of Giuseppe Mazzuoli" "The Burlington Magazine" 116 No. 850 (January 1974:36, 39-41) note from archival documents that the chapel was complete and the architectural elements of the wall tombs installed by the inscribed dates; Mazzuoli's payments begin in July 1716 and the last polishing was paid for in November 1717.] "in situ" in the two double funerary monuments facing each other in the Rospigliosi-Pallavicini chapel, Church of San Francesco a Ripa, Rome. The architectue of the wall monuments is by Niccolò Michetti. Portrait busts of duke Giovanni Battista and Matia Cammilla Rospigliosi-Pallavicini (Pallavicini collection, Rome) were among the works contracted from Mazzuoli; copies of them were incorporated in the chapel's wall monuments. [Frederick den Broeder, responding to the Westin article, "Letters", "The Burlington Magazine" 116 No. 855 (June 1974:332).]
*"Saint Philip", ca 1718, "in situ" at the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome. [The first attribution to Mazzuoli, noted by Westin 1974:36, is in 1745]
* (attributed to Mazzuoli) Pair of "Angels" above the altar in the second chapel on the left in the Church of Santa Maria in Campitelli. The attribution to Mazzuoli [In TCI, "Roma e dintorni" 1965:254.] is strengthened by the presence once more of Carlo Rainaldi, who masterpiece is this church.
*Allegorical figures for the Tomb of Ramon Perello (died 1720), in the church of Saint John, Valletta, Malta.
*"Charity", 1723 (Chapel in the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà, Rome). Mazzuoli's late work takes its place in a rich program of sculpture in the chapel originally designed by Carlo Maderno, but refitted by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi with rich colored marble revetments. [TCI, "Roma e dintorni" 1965:249.] Mazzuoli notes his age— "età 79"— with his inscribed signature.
*"Education of the Virgin". [Henry Hawley, "Giuseppe Mazzuoli: Education of the Virgin" "Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art" 60 (1973:293-99).]

The early biographer of Mazzuoli is Lione Pascoli, in "Vite de' Pittori, Scultori ed Architetta Moderni," vol. II (Rome 1736). A number of terracotta models kept by Mazzuoli's heirs in Siena seem to have been part of a cache of the family workshop holdings that was donated to the Isituto di Belli Arti of Siena about 1767 by Giuseppe Maria Mazzuoli. [Noted by Carl Brandon Strehlke in reviewing the exhibition of the Saracini Collection for "The Burlington Magazine" 132 No. 1042 (January 1990:61 and fig. 63, illustrating a terracotta model of "St. John the Baptist" in the collection.]

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