MENGOZZI COLONNA, Girolamo
Italian painter, mostly of frescoed quadratura. He was a pupil of the architectural perspective painters Antonio Felice Ferrari and Francesco Scala in Emilia-Romagna. He moved to Venice by 1716, where he began collaborations that spanned over four decades with Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son Giovanni Domenico.
Mengozzi’s first collaboration with Tiepolo was the decoration of the hall on the first floor (1719-1720) of the Villa Baglioni in Massanzago. This was followed by the Apotheosis of Santa Teresa (1724-1725) in the vault of a chapel of Santa Maria degli Scalzi. He also collaborated with Tiepolo in paintings for the church of the Cappucini in the sestiere of Castello. In these collaborations Mengozzi created the quadratura, and Tiepolo the figures.
In 1726, he worked with Tiepolo in the gallery of the archbishop’s palace and the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament in the Cathedral of Udine. This work was commissioned by the patrician Dionisio Dolfin. The frescoed scenes of Dream of Jacob, Sacrifice of Isaac, Hagar in the Desert, Rachel and the Idols, Abraham and the Angels, and Sarah and the Angel were all completed in collaboration with Mengozzi.
Together with the Tiepolo, Mengozzi helped decorate the Palazzo Labia in 1745-47. The ceiling depicts Bellerophon on Pegasus in flight toward the Glory and Eternity, while the walls are frescoed with the Meeting and Banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra. The painted quadratura frames the events.
Mengozzi also collaborated with Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. In 1754 he completed architectural perspective for scenes by him in the church of Santi Faustino e Giovita in Brescia. In 1757, with father and son Tiepolo he painted the walls of the Palazzo Valmarana at Vicenza. Later that year, he collaborated with the elder Tiepolo in decorating certain salons in Ca’ Rezzonico.
Between 1760 and 1762 and Mengozzi and the elder Tiepolo collaborated in the massive Glory of the Pisani family on the ceiling of the central hall in the Villa Pisani at Stra. With the departure of Tiepolo for Spain in 1762, Mengozzi began a collaboration with Jacopo Guarana, a pupil of Tiepolo, in the chapel of the ducal palace.
During most of the years between 1720 and 1743, Mengozzi is enrolled at the Venetian painters’ guild. He journeyed to Rome in 1724. He entered the Academy of St. Luke, gave lectures in perspective in 1725-26. Returning to Venice, in 1727 he became a member of the newly formed Accademia di San Luca, and became an professor by 1766.
Mengozzi’s son, Agostino (Venice, c. 1725-1792), also became well known as a quadraturista.
