Sebastiano Mazzoni (1611-1678), a Florentine transplanted in Venice, is the protagonist of the first exhibition organized by the Gallerie dell'Accademia with the works held in its storerooms.
[Sebastiano Mazzoni. Tales of St. Catherine] With the initiative ‘From the storerooms of the Academy Galleries of Venice’ the Special Department for the Venetian Museum District has launched a major project to make better use of the holdings of this museum. The project includes the opening of the new “Quadreria” in the Palladio corridor on the second floor of the museum (visits by reservation only, Friday, Saturday and Sunday), and the creation of small temporary exhibitions.
The paintings in this exhibition come from the church of Santa Caterina and are by an eccentric ‘Poet, painter and twice mad’ – as the artist defined himself in a sonnet – born and trained in Florence, but a naturalized Venetian: Sebastiano Mazzoni (Florence, 1611 – Venice, 1678). The paintings reveal an expansive, bizarre temperament, and are expressions of the fulfillment of the baroque sensibility, with its contrasts in intense effects, on the part of the Venetian painting.
Venice, 2004