GASPARE DIZIANI Lot n° 105

(Belluno, 1689 - Venice, 1767) Moses and the bronze serpent Oil on canvas, 54.5X68.5 cm Provenance: Milan, private collection A renowned painter and engraver, Gaspare Diziani was first a pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini and later of fellow countryman Sebastiano Ricci. His initial notoriety was due to his theatrical set design, which took him to the court of Augustus III of Saxony in Dresden in 1717 and to Munich. In 1720 he returned to Venice and enjoyed a happy painting moment. He traveled to several cities in the Veneto region, painting works of fine artistic merit, especially in Belluno and Padua. He also traveled to Rome, Bergamo, and Trento, tackling all genres, from landscape to historical portraits and religious painting. In 1766, he was elected to the presidency of the Accademia di Pittura in Venice, but could not complete his term because he died suddenly on August 17, 1767 in St. Mark's Square. The painting presented here, depicting Moses and the Bronze Serpent with a landscape background, is reminiscent of several similar compositions by the master in terms of its robustness of form and chromatic tenor. According to Filippo Pedrocco, it is a work datable to the beginning of the fourth decade and akin to the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem executed in 1733 for the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro (now kept in the church of San Pietro Martire in Murano), whose sketch belonging to the Landesmuseum in Hanover is as close as ever to the painting under consideration (Cf. M. Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto. Il Settecento, edited by M. Lucco, A. Mariuz, G. Pavanello, F. Zava, Milan 1996, II, fig. 109). We can also recall that the narrative construction thus conceived was later employed by the author in the canvas belonging to the Church of Saints Michael and Louis in Montebelluna in 1755 (Fig. 1; Cf. Zugni-Tauro, p. 67, table 215; Cini Photo Library: https://arte.cini.it/Opere/448851). The work is accompanied by a critical card by Filippo Pedrocco. Reference bibliography: A. P. Zugni Tauro, Gaspare Diziani, Venice 1971 E. Martini, La pittura del Settecento veneto, Maniago 1982, ad vocem E. Martini, Pittura Veneta ed altro italiana dal XV al XIX secolo, Rimini 1992, ad vocem R. Pallucchini, Gaspare Diziani, in La pittura nel Veneto. Il Settecento, Milan 1996, II, pp. 86-104