Sculptor. He is thought to have been born in Volterra, although soon after his birth his family moved to Siena where his architect father had been engaged to rebuild Prince Mattia’s palazzo. After initial training in Siena, Mazzuoli relocated to Rome where he entered the workshop of Ercole Ferrata. In 1675, he became a member of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi and in 1679 a member of the Accademia di San Luca. He is said to have concurrently run two workshops, one in Siena during the summer, the other in Rome in the winter. In 1679–89, he was engaged on a cycle of 12 marble statues of the Apostles for Siena Cathedral; no longer deemed stylistically appropriate by the late nineteenth century, they were purchased as a group by Father Charles Bowden and relocated to Brompton Oratory, London. One other major work remains in Siena, the Dead Christ, c.1673, for Santa Maria della Scala; the rest are in Rome: ‘Charity’, 1673–75, for Bernini’s Monument to Alexander VII in St Peter’s; statues of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist, 1677–79, for the Church of Gesù e Maria; a statue of ‘Clemency’, c.1684, for Mattia de’ Rossi’s Monument to Pope Clement X, St Peter’s; a statue of St Philip, 1711, for San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome; and the Monument to Angelo Altieri and his wife Laura Carpegna, 1709, for Santa Maria in Campitelli.
Sources: Butzek, M., ‘Giuseppe Mazzuoli e le statue degli Apostoli del Duomo di Siena’, Prospettiva, no. 61 (January 1991), pp. 75–89; Oxford Art Online: Benezit Dictionary of Artists and Grove Art Online.
Terry Cavanagh November 2022