BASTIANI, LAZZARO.—Venetian painter (born ca. 1430, died in Venice in 1512), he is first mentioned in 1449: he must have trained in the Squarcionesque Paduan orbit (the Polyptych of Matera, 1460–70, is attributed to him), drawing close to Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini as well as to Iacopo Bellini (Adoration of the Magi, P. Morgan Collection; the Nativity in the Accademia of Venice, dated 1480, is his first dated work). His dry manner and hard contours (cf. two panels with scenes from the life of Christ, Accademia of Venice) suggest an activity as an engraver and illuminator, of which there is no record. After 1475 he was influenced by the models of Antonello da Messina, often through the mediation of Alvise Vivarini (p. 2a of s. Veneranda, Accademia of Venice), but eventually came to repeat laboriously and monotonously a personal scheme of rigid compositional balance and formal rigor; in the final years of the century, the influence of Gentile Bellini (Funeral of s. Girolamo, Accademia of Venice; Donation of the Relic of the Cross, ibid.) was joined by that of Carpaccio, whose master B. is said to have been.
BASTIANI, LAZZARO
BIBL.: L. Venturi, s. V. in Thieme-Becker, III, pp. 20–22; E. Sandberg-Vavalà, L. B. Madonnas, in The Burlington Magazine, 59 (1931), pp. 124–40; L. Collohi, L. B., in La Critica d'arte, 4 (1939), pp. 33–53.
Cite this article
“BASTIANI, LAZZARO.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II (1949), p. 586. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/bastiani-lazzaro.