Enthroned Madonna with saints

This work, which depicts the Madonna adored by Saints Dominic and Catherine of Siena, once belonged to the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. It was considered a youthful work of the author, but today it is more precisely attributed to the years between 1747 and 1750. Giuseppe Bazzani, besides being the greatest painter born in the city of Mantua, is an extraordinary figure of the Italian eighteenth century. Highly skilled in tracing frayed and exhausted yet brilliant colors on the canvas, Bazzani creates a largely sacred world with a quivering and lively intention, yet one that is traversed by a perennial restlessness. His extensive opus oscillates between the lightest and darkest tones, which draw shapes from almost nothing, while accurately delineating the motions of the soul of the characters. In this painting, the monumentality of the enthroned Madonna is achieved by a river of colors rising upwards and composing it. Saint Clare angles toward the slender and adorable Infant Jesus, almost wringing herself with love, and kisses his little foot while she holds her left hand over her heart. Meanwhile, a splendid Saint Dominic seems to gather in the shadows, from which the white glares of his garments emerge, as if to represent an autonomous intelligence, pulsating with vitality.