"Workshop Of Giovanni Bonazza - Marble Medallion, Veneto, First Half Of The 18th Century"
This beautiful marble medallion carved in high relief presents the noble profile of a man with a short beard and mid-length hair. His thick curls were accentuated through the use of a trephine and a bevelled chisel, allowing the artist to produce effects of roughness and contrasting shadows with the smooth and luminous treatment of the flesh. This singular treatment of the marble, as well as the radiant features of our protagonist - with fleshy lips and stretched eyes ending in a very marked upper eyelid - is completely characteristic of venetian Baroque sculpture in the first half of the 18th century. It takes its source from the language of the great masters of the time, such as Orazio Marinali or, even more here, Giovanni Bonazza. Indeed, due to its style and typology, our medallion can be compared to an exceptional set of eight marble medallions adorned with bas-relief portraits of illustrious men and women, such as Cassandra Fedele, Francesco Pallavicino or Pietro Bembo, now kept in the collections of the Museo Civico in Padua, all made by Giovanni Bonazza and his workshop.Resulting from a then flourishing production - as evidenced by the works mentioned above - our medallion once had to be integrated into a marble, stucco or terracotta frame, and constituted with others an architectural decorative ensemble typical of baroque churches and palaces of the Serenissima.