Alfredo Tozzi

Alfredo Amedeo Tozzi (* 1624 (?) In Prato , Tuscany ; † January 1, 1681 in Siena , Tuscany) was an Italian painter and sculptor.

Tozzi was born in a middle-class Catholic family. His father Umberto Tozzi (*?; † 1658) was a merchant, the identity of his mother is not clear, she probably died when Alfredo was born. He had two older sisters. From the age of 19 he studied at the University of Pisa , which he had to abandon shortly before the end of his mathematics studies for financial reasons. There he met the young Austrian Maria Wägeler, who later became his lover and wife. From then on he devoted himself mainly to painting.

In 1648 he traveled to Rome , where a petty aristocrat from Bavaria discovered his talent and commissioned some portraits from Tozzi. Several art connoisseurs and critics soon became aware of Tozzi, but he was unable to make his big breakthrough as an artist. Tozzi mainly painted saints motifs as oil paintings on canvas, although some portraits and church frescoes of him are also known. From now on he worked more and more as a sculptor. The devout Catholic Tozzi tried again and again over the years to get a commission for a painting from Pope Alexander VII personally. However, this wish was never fulfilled.

After the death of his father Umberto in March 1658, he retired to a remote farm near his hometown Prato for several months. In early 1660 he started painting again, mainly to earn a living. In November 1671 he married Maria Wägeler, whom he already knew from his student days. Together they had two children, a son and a daughter. In 1673 he bought a house in Siena and finally turned his back on professional painting, Tozzi only painted in his free time. A year later he started his diary with the title “My Life” (orig .: La mia vita ). The diary was in the possession of Tozzi's descendants for a long time, but it disappeared in the turmoil of the First World War .

Tozzi died of smallpox infection in his home in Siena on New Year's Day 1681 .

Most famous works (selection)

• Vergine Máriá sulla Montágna Nazareth (German: Virgin Mary on Mount Nazareth, approx. 1655–1657)
• La genesis Evá (fresco, San Fabiano , German: The birth / emergence of Eve, approx. 1664/1665)
• Angelo Gábriel in finto dio (fresco, Chiesa di San Lorenzo a Fossato, German: Archangel Gabriel in the glow of God, approx. 1671/1672)

swell

• Horst Friedmann: Italy - art and culture Renaissance . Boehmen Verlag, 1980, p. 211 ff .
• Horst Friedmann: Italy - Art and Culture Baroque . Boehmen Verlag, 1981, p. 149 .
• Francesco Rizzoli: Alexander VII. L'arte papst . Umberti Verlag, 1999, p. 48; 173 ff .