Cinisi to host discussion on Sicilian painter Gaspare Vazzano

As part of the ‘Le Notti di BCsicilia’ event, a discussion titled ‘Art and Counter-Reformation in Sicily: Lo Zoppo di Gangi, the Painter of Angels’ will be held on Friday, August 21, 2026, at the F. P. Abbate Library in Cinisi.

The event will feature an intervention by architect and historian Salvatore Farinella. The discussion aims to examine the historical identity of ‘Lo Zoppo di Gangi,’ a renowned painter of the Counter-Reformation period between the late 16th and early 17th centuries. For centuries, the artist's true identity was obscured by a historiographical error, but it has since been clarified that the pseudonym refers to Gaspare Vazzano.

Vazzano, a prominent figure of Sicilian late Mannerism, will be the focus of the study. The presentation will trace his life from his origins in Gangi and his training in Palermo under Giuseppe Alvino to the establishment of his own workshop and the origins of his famous pseudonym.