FLAMINIO INNOCENZO MINOZZI (1735-1817)

A TROMPE L'OEIL STUDY OF A CEILING
Pen & ink with blue & grey washes over black chalk on laid paper
34.9 x 43 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 06.12.1988, lot 49;
Professor Eric Gerald Stanley, FBA (1923-2018)
 
 
 
 
 
Flaminio Minozzi was born in Bologna, then a centre of a school of decorative ceiling painting which prized ‘quaddratura’, a practice not unlike trompe l’oeil of painting ceilings to create the illusion of ‘opening up’ architectural spaces, generally ceilings. Unlike trompe l’oeil and other similarly illusionistic techniques, quadratura was rooted firmly in secento theories of and mathematical treatises on perspective. 
 
He studied under his father, Bernardo Minozzi, a landscape painter, and then at the Accademia Clementina. He won the Premio Marsili-Aldrovandi , an award given for artistic excellence established in the manner of other Academies’ medals and prizes. He worked alongside Carlo Galli Bibiena, and later moved to Lisbon to continue his work in the Bolognese tradition of his time. His works are often characterised by their delicate blue washes.