Domenico Mazzoni Biography
Born in Caneva di Sacile on 8 September 1852, M. showed, since he was a child, his artistic inclinations which were encouraged in the family by his uncle, the painter Giovanni Battista Benardelli from Cormona, dedicated to landscape painting of romantic inspiration. After completing his high school studies in Udine in 1872, M. enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice which he attended for only one year, being admitted, already in 1873, to the School of figure elements and to that of perspective of Brera Academy in Milan. Despite his move to the Lombard capital, the artist continued to maintain close epistolary relationships with the Venetian environment and in particular with Luigi Nono, also a landscape painter who always remained linked to M. by feelings of fraternal friendship. In 1877, probably at the end of his studies in Milan, together with him and Pompeo Gherardo Molmenti, the future historian and critic of Venetian art, M. signed and dated the small canvas entitled Il Cansiglio (Venice, International Gallery of Modern Art of Ca' Pesaro), a small work depicting a glimpse of the Friulian plateau, where M. had gone with friends in search of suggestive views to paint "en plein air". Dated to the same period is a youthful Self-portrait (private collection) which depicts the artist boldly directing a determined and confident gaze at the viewer. Having returned permanently to Caneva, M. continued to dedicate himself to painting, orienting himself towards the genres of landscape and portrait which he continued to frequent throughout his professional career. The personal and artistic association that linked him to Luigi Nono made him an exponent of that stain painting which in Venice was represented by his friend, but also by other painters of importance such as Guglielmo Ciardi and Giacomo Favretto. Alongside his pictorial experimentation, he also dedicated himself to photography which had a decisive influence on the development of his expressive style. In 1887 he participated in the National Exhibition held that year in the lagoon city with some Studies and two canvases depicting the Village Road and a Ford, while in 1897 he attended the second edition of the Venetian Biennale with Campagna di March. Starting from the early years of the twentieth century, his exhibition activity was concentrated above all in the regional context with some participation in the exhibitions of the Permanente of Milan and of the Society promoting fine arts of Turin. His presence, in particular, was recorded at the Regional Exhibition of Udine in 1903 with Pastorale, Notte di luna, Ombre estive and Sera di Novembre and at the 1st Exhibition of Friulian artists, organized in 1913 in the Friulian capital. The Self-portrait preserved in a private collection certainly belongs to this last period of his activity, where M. now portrays himself as an old man, demonstrating that he has fully assimilated the lesson of late nineteenth-century realism. Always stingy with information, the critical literature concerning the painter is still very sparse today due to the voluntary isolation into which the painter relegated himself in the last years of his life, before passing away in Udine on 30 May 1923.
