Sebastiano Lazzari

(Verona circa 1730–1790/1800 Venice?)
Trompe l’oeil,
signed in the center on the clock: Sebastianus Lazari Veronensis / Pict. Sculp. Et Archit. Fecit / MDCCLXXXVIIII, inscribed on the letter,
oil on canvas, 142 x 176.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Venice;
Private collection, Milan;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
P. L. Fantelli/A. Rizzi, I “finti assi” del “pictor sculptor et architectus” Sebastiano Lazzari, in: Ateneo Veneto, 22, 1984, pp. 221-222, and fig. 27, 29;

M. Acanfora, Sebastiano Lazzari: notizie e opere inedite, in: Verona illustrata, 29, 2016, p. 84, mentioned under note 1

The present painting is a characteristic work of Sebastiano Lazzari from Verona. Originally it was the pendant to a work formerly in a private collection at Mira, representing vases of flowers on a table with other objects and a parrot, and with paintings and a map on the wall, and a young girl holding a lap dog on the left (see P. L. Fantelli/A. Rizzi, pp. 221–222 and fig. 28). The present Trompe-l’oeil also represents a table covered by a decorated cloth at the centre of the composition: placed on this are a letter, a box of biscuits and a tray containing a coffee service, and beyond these there is an armillary sphere, a clock on which the signature, and date in Roman numerals corresponding to 1789 are inscribed, and a terrestrial globe. On the right, a youth turns toward the spectator, apparently pointing out the various objects, while on the wall are hung a protractor, an astronomical chart, two painted portraits and centred above these, there is a niche containing two shelves of books. This is a very specific type of iconography that reoccurs continually in the artist’s other known works, wherein objects of everyday use are set alongside specific instruments of scientific research, generating a curious fusion of the everyday, and the intellectual. Such mixtures of objects allude to meanings that may no longer be accessible to modern viewers, who are unable to read the abstruse messages that may be hidden within this most particular type of representation, that have been described as ‘rebus figurativi’ [or ‘visual riddles’] (see M. Acanfora, Sebastiano Lazzari: notizie e opere inedite, in: Verona illustrata, 29, 2016, pp. 69-85). More or less open allusions reoccur in other works, for example in the pendant pair in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice, which among other things represent respectively, a cat, and an open watermelon on a table.

The career of Sebastiano Lazzari still remains undocumented. However, he remains celebrated for his particular specialisation in the genre that his biographer Zannandreis, first described as ‘finti assi’: […] ‘poiché il loro fondo, o sia campo, è finto di tavole di pino piceo, detto volgarmente pezzo, a cui stanno appoggiati utensili mobili e stromenti di musica di varia sorte, con carte appese ed altro’ [‘imitation boards’: […] ‘since their background, that is the field, imitates piceo pine boards, commonly called pezzo, on which are arranged portable utensils, musical instruments of various kinds, displayed papers and other things’ (D. Zannandreis, Le vite dei pittori scultori e architetti veronesi, 1831-34, ed. by G. Biadego, Verona 1891, p. 423). Here with the representation of objects in an interior, the walls of which are panelled with wood: these are images that take up the traditions of both still-life and trompe l’oeil painting in a singular manner and that evidently gained success among collectors in the Veneto region during the second half of the eighteenth century. This success is additionally demonstrated by the emergence of various imitators of this artist, who were either his contemporaries, or his successors.

Sebastiano Lazzari was evidently not only trained as a painter since in many of his works, like the one currently under discussion, he signed and described himself as a painter, as well as a sculptor and architect – of achievements in these latter professions however, so far, no material evidence has yet come to light.