The portrait of the Italian singer Angelo Mazini is distinguished by its unusual restrained coloration. It is dominated by grey with small speckles of white and gold. This technique allows Serov to shift emphasis from the external stateliness of the Italian singer. In contrast to the neutral colours of the clothes and the background, the singer’s facial expression seems particularly expressive: sharply lowered corners of his mouth, underlined by the mustache line, and amazing eyes, whose gaze reveals his pent up sadness. Serov managed to look into the hidden inner world of the artist, to escape from the banal image of an icon spoiled by public attention. F.I. Chaliapin recalled: “He really sang like an archangel sent from heaven in order to ennoble people”. For this portrait, the artist received the first prize in the competition by the Moscow Society of Art Lovers in 1890.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow