A Trompe l'oeil of a Parrot by a Basket of Strawberries and a Bottle on a Ledge with Mechanical Drawings behind

SEBASTIANO LAZZARI

1730 – circa 1795         

Italian School

A Trompe l’oeil of a Parrot by a Basket of Strawberries and a Bottle on a Ledge with Mechanical Drawings behind  

Oil on canvas 

57.2 x 71 cms

221/2 x 28 inches

Ex collection: Sir Hugh Lane, Dublin

                       Sir Edwin Lutyens

Sebastiano Lazzari was a painter of portraits, still lifes and history pictures working in Venice and Verona in the mid to late eighteenth century but very little is known about the artist. Verona was his place of origin, or where he worked from for most of his life, and this is known because he often included the city name together with his signature.

His trompe l'oeil paintings are probably the works for which he is most renowned today and he produced some exceptional examples of this genre. These started to appear round about 1750 and were nearly always set against a wooden wall and for this reason they are often called finti assi. Affixed to the wall were usually mechanical or astronomical drawings and hanging from a nail beside this were a pair of pince-nez or a magnifying glass.

Against this faux- wood background there would be a ledge on which the objects making up the still-life were placed. A parrot makes a regular and spectacular addition to the inanimate objects but sometimes there was a cat or a bundle of asparagus spears.

This style of composition must have been highly sought after at the time because several other artists also produced very similar work of which Francesco Bossi and the Monogrammist G.F. were the closest. They tended to put maps and paintings on the wood background and although Bossi also utilised parrots, G.F. tended to employ musical instruments and parchment scrolls with a few scattered playing cards. The trompe l'oeil painters Andrea Remps and Benedetto Sartori were also close in style and composition

Lazzari also worked as a designer for majolica and porcelain factories, first in Nove,and later in Venice and Bologna



Bibliography:

Trompe l'oeil painting: The illusions of Beauty - Miriam Milman

La Natura Morta in Italia - Federico Zeri, Francesco Porzio and others