ROME.- A microcosm condensed in a Venetian shop located in Campo San Barnaba, an area located in the Dorsoduro district, close to the monumental neoclassical facade of the homonymous church, is the protagonist of this painting, multisensorial tranche de vie, from which raise smells, colors, scents of an emporium which is a fragment of the small artisan crafts of the early Venetian Twentieth century. A kaleidoscopic sample of objects and foods, an exceptional proof of virtuosity, where the eye is lost in the myriad of lenticular particular captured by the painter’s brush, the Venetian Mazzetti, specialized in this kind of compositions, as evidenced by the other similar representation, depicting the showcase of an antique shop in the lagoon, coeval to the canvas presented here, on display at the International Exhibition of Monaco in 1901, a painting which gave the Venetian painter the gold medal.

Pans, soaps, pumpkins, dolls, slippers, jugs, small forms of bread design a scenic backdrop, a mosaic of profiles and figures, in which the painter inserts the delicate silhouette of a child intent on peek curiously with the contents of the pot put on fire by the old lady with the handkerchief, placed on the side of the counter, from which is a page of “La Difesa”, a Venetian daily newspaper founded in 1884, used as a wrapper to show the merchandise.

Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Mazzetti attends the courses of Guglielmo Ciardi. In the early Nineties he stayed in Rome, where he exhibited lagoon landscapes with the Society of Amateurs and Cultors (1893, “St. Mark’s pond”). He participates in several editions of the Venice Biennale, including those of 1899, 1901, 1903 and constantly in editions ranging from 1905 to 1914, including among his motives also mountain views of the Dolomites (1901, “Among the Dolomites” 1903, “The Cypresses”, 1905, “The mountain cottage”, Venice, Ca’ Pesaro Modern Art Gallery).

In 1908 he was appointed Academician of Merit at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Painter of essentially traditional character, with a rich brushstroke, is devoted mainly to landscaping. The “Nocturne pinewood”, presented at the Venetian Biennial in 1909, is purchased by Vittorio Emanuele III. His works are in the collections of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Venice, at the Treviso Art Gallery, at the Marangoni Museum in Udine.