The safekeepers of tradition : Giuseppe Maria Mazza and Donato Creti
In the late 18th century Luigi Lanzi pointed out in his Pictural History of Italy how the « great change » that occurred in Bologna in the beginning of said century had been initiated by the opposition of two painters who were both rooted in tradition. The first was Lorenzo Pasinelli, inspired by the pure drawing style of Raffaello and by the solemnly striking visual ideas of Paolo Veronese, the other being Carlo Cignani, more inclined towards the grace of Correggio and the roman classicism of Annibale Carracci. While the eloquence of Carlo Cignani was the predecessor to the bright purism – without the possibility for ulterior development – of Marcantonio Franceschini, fitting for both altar paintings and collectible ones and even prestige decoration, the teachings of Pasinelli over a time period of fifty-plus years had long-term and varied results. The aristocratic refinement of Giovan Gioseffo Da Sole, and the dignity of Giuseppe Maria Mazza can attest to it. Pasinelli’s two most talented pupils became the leading forces in the Bolognese art scene throughout the first half of the 18th century, each in his own style : Donato Creti, child prodigy, striving for the perfect idealized form, and Giuseppe Maria Crespi, dedicated to painting the intimacy inside households, described as an impetuous naturalist.
Giuseppe Maria Mazza initiated the rebirth of sculpure, attracting collectors thanks to the production of finely molded terracotta statuettes. He was a sculptor that had studied under painters in their workshops and was able to translate the formal perfection of their – Pasinelli and Francheschini’s – paintings into stucco and clay. The international quality didn’t take too much time to make itself known. As soon as the early decades of the century, Benedetto Gennari, Guercino’s nephew, worked for the Stuarts in London for a long time and Marcantonio Francheschini had more than forty paintngs sent to Vienna to decorate Johann Adam Andreas von Liechtenstein’s palace.
Donato Creti, as a protégé to the Counts Fava, worked for Adrien Maurice, Duke of Noailles, commanding the french Italy-stationed troops as per his title of Maréchal.