STAZIO, Abbondio

Stucco work could in itself beautify a room, as demonstrated by Abbondio Stanzio in Palazzo Sagredo in Venice. The Sagredo family had rooms of their intimate mezzanine redecorated in 1718 after a fire. Assisted by his pupil Carpoforo Mazzetti Tencalla, the artist created for various rooms an ensemble of polychrome stucco that features exotic animals rendered practically life-size, along with birds, trophies, and arabesques. A brightly coloured greenish-blue cloth is draped all around.

The bedroom, consisting of an antechamber with a bed alcove, is displayed in the metropolitan Museum in New York. In design and workmanship, it is one of the finest of its period.

The picture shows the ‘portego’ of the Palazzo Albrizzi, decorated with stuccoes by Abbondio Stazio and his pupil Carpoforo Mazzetti, known as Tencalla. The high relief stucco decoration in lively colours extends over large area, becoming the true protagonist of the space.

Among the specialists who made a decisive contribution to defining the decorative appearance of eighteenth-century interiors, stuccoworkers (plasterers) acquired a new importance. Their role alongside sculptors and painters in decorating total environments, from churches to palaces, was well-defined and helped to boost the position of the craft of stucco. Stuccowork provides the indispensable complement to the decorative finish in all kinds of spaces. The interiors of Palazzo Sagredo, the church of the Gesuiti, the Scuola Grande dei Carmini, the church of the Gesuati, and Ca’ Zenobio are the most famous examples. Only rarely do signatures or documents provide us with the identity of these craftsmen who to a large extent remain anonymous. Two names come up most often: Abbondio Stazio and Carpoforo Mazzetti, who worked together.

The present picture shows a splendid group, made by Abbondio Stazio and Carpoforo Mazzetti. It surmounts the double doorway into the portego.

The picture shows a detail of the interior decoration of the mezzanine on the third floor of Palazzo Sagredo. The interlacing stucco with trophies and garlands, livened by naturalistic brightly coloured birds, as a whole creates a highly decorative impression full of grace and charm. The decoration is the work of Abbondio Stazio and Carpoforo Mazzetti Tencalla.

Marino Zane, the seventeenth-century owner of the Palazzetto Zane, wanted the vault of the double-height portego - the principal room around which the various spaces of the villa were organized - decorated in stucco work. He commissioned Abbondio Stazio, and a less-well-known artist, Andrea Pelli, to execute the work.

The picture shows the monochromes depicting Amphitrite Transported by the Dolphin and Neptune on a Seahorse, painted by Sebastiano Ricci, and framed by stucco work by Abbondio Stazio and Andrea Pelli.