| GIUSEPPE BEZZUOLI (Florence 1784 - 1850) LA MALINCONIA (Melancholia) Pen and brown ink, over traces in black chalk. 311 x 214 mm. Inscribed in pencil 'Malinconia' and in pen 'Pittore Bezzuoli'. The subject seems to be inspired by the description of Melancholia in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia (1593), a celebrated handbook for Baroque allegories: 'Donna vecchia, mesta, & dogliosa, di brutti panni vestita, senza alcun ornamento, starà a sedere sopra un sasso, con gomiti posati sopra i ginocchi, & ambe le mani sotto il mento, & vi sarà a canto un albero senza fronde, & fra i sassi'. The name 'melancholia' comes from the old medical theory of the four humours: disease being caused by an imbalance in one or other of the four basic bodily fluids, or humours. Personality types were similarly determined by the dominant humour in a Bezzuoli was a student at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence under the direction of Pietro Benvenuti. In 1812, after winning a painting contest he went to Rome to study the antiques. On his return to Florence, Bezzuoli decorated Palazzo Pitti, Palazzo Pucci, Palazzo Gerini, the church of San Remigio in 1827. In 1837 he became a teacher at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence where he taught Giuseppe Fattori. In his later years he worked on the Casa de Rossi and the Duomo in Pistoia. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|