Ezia Gavazza (1928-18 April 2019) was an Italian art historian. Along with her friends and colleagues Lauro Magnani and Piero Boccardo, she was one of the most prolific writers in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Baroque art The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (in ...

. She specialised in the

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

n Baroque, particularly

Domenico Piola Domenico Piola (1627 – 8 April 1703) was a Genoese painter of the Baroque period. He was the leading artist in Genoa in the second half of the 17th century, working on ceiling frescoes for many Genoese churches and palaces and canvas paintin ...

Giulio Benso Giulio Benso (30 October 1592 – 1668) was a Genovese painter of the early Baroque. He is known as one of the followers of the style of Luca Cambiasi. Benso was born in Pieve di Teco. Initially under the patronage of Giovanni Carl Doria, he m ...

Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo (1584 – August 18, 1638) was an Italian painter active mainly in Genoa. Life Ansaldo was born in Voltri, now part of the ''comune'' of Genoa, the son of a merchant. He trained under Orazio Cambiasi and possibly collabor ...

Grechetto Grechetto () or Grechetto bianco is a white Italian wine grape variety of Greek origins. The grape is planted throughout central Italy, particularly in the Umbria region where it is used in the ''Denominazione di origine controllata'' (DOC) win ...

and

Bernardo Strozzi Bernardo Strozzi, named il Cappuccino and il Prete Genovese (c. 1581 – 2 August 1644), was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver. A canvas and fresco artist, his wide subject range included History painting, history, Allegory, allegorica ...

Life

Born in

Pozzolo Formigaro Pozzolo Formigaro is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about southeast of Alessandria. As of 1 January 2022, it had a population of 4,507 and an area o ...

, for several years she held the chair in Modern Art History at the

University of Genoa The University of Genoa () is a public research university. It is one of the largest universities in Italy and it is located in the city of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguria region of northwestern Italy. The original university was fou ...

before being made Professor Emerita by minister Fabio Mussi. She was a city counsellor for the

PCI PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Prov ...

and also took a major part in Genoa's cultural life by organising exhibitions, publications and specialist conferences. In her final years she settled in the historic city centre of Genoa and continued to collaborate in the city's cultural and academic life. She died in Genoa aged 91. She trained several important art critics, art historians and academics such as Lauro Magnani and Piero Boccardo, director of Genoa's Strada Nuova Museums. Two monographs were published to mark her retirement, marking her importance in Genoese and wider scholarship. She and other Genoese art historians also carried out major research on several paintings in the city's Zerbone collection. Her method of artistic investigation derived from the methodology of

Aby Warburg Aby Moritz Warburg (June 13, 1866 – October 26, 1929) was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the ''Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg'' (Warburg Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, which was later m ...

and his iconological school and following the "Arganiani" (i.e. supporters of

Giulio Carlo Argan Giulio Carlo Argan (17 May 1909 – 12 November 1992) was an Italian art historian, critic and politician. Biography Argan was born in Turin and studied in the University of Turin, graduating in 1931. In 1928 he entered the National Fascist Part ...

's method). She also investigated the complex web of relationships between the Genoese and Roman schools through looking at long and short visits to Rome by individual Genoese artists. In 2011 she and her colleague Lauro Magnani looked at Genoese nunneries (now mostly suppressed, demolished or in secular use) through an art-historical lens to reconstruct the city's urban and social appearance in the 16th and 17th centuries, studies which culminated in ''Monasteri femminili a Genova tra il XVI e il XVII secolo'', published by Diras di Genova.

Major contributions

*''La grande decorazione a Genova'', Sagep,

974 Year 974 ( CMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Battle of Danevirke: Emperor Otto II defeats the rebel forces of King Harald I, who has invaded Nordalbingia (modern-day Ho ...

*''Lo spazio dipinto. Il grande affresco genovese nel Seicento'', Sagep, 1989 *(with Federica Lamera e Lauro Magnani) ''La pittura in Liguria. Il secondo Seicento'', Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia, 1990 *(with Giovanna Rotondi Terminiello) ''Genova nell'età barocca'',

Skira The festival of the Skira () or Skirophoria () in the calendar of ancient Athens, closely associated with the Thesmophoria, marked the dissolution of the old year in May/June. Description At Athens, the last month of the year was '' Skiropho ...

, 1994 *(with other authors) Catalogue of an exhibition on

, Electa, 1995 *(with Lauro Magnani and Giovanna Rotondi Terminiello) catalogue of a Zerbone collection exhibition on

Gregorio De Ferrari Gregorio de Ferrari (c. 1647–1726) was an Italian Baroque painter of the Genoese School. Biography De Ferrari was born in Porto Maurizio. He came to Genoa to study law but instead became a painter. He apprenticed with Domenico Fiasella fro ...

and

Giovan Battista Gaulli Giovanni Battista Gaulli (8 May 1639 – 2 April 1709), also known as Baciccio or Baciccia (Genoese nicknames for ''Giovanni Battista''), was an Italian Baroque painter working in the High Baroque and early Rococo periods. He is best known for h ...

(known as il Baciccio), 2000 *(with Lauro Magnani) ''Pittura e decorazione a Genova e in Liguria nel Settecento'', Sagep, 2000 *(with Lauro Magnani and Giovanna Rotondi Terminiello) ''Galleria dell'Accademia di Venezia. Disegni genovesi'', Electa, 2002 *''L'età di

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

'', collaboration on an exhibition catalogue, edited by Piero Boccardo, Skira, 2004

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gavazza, Ezia Italian art historians 1928 births 2019 deaths Academic staff of the University of Genoa People from the Province of Alessandria Italian Baroque Italian women art historians 20th-century Italian historians 20th-century Italian women writers 21st-century Italian historians 21st-century Italian women writers