[2][3] He trained as a sculptor under his father for a while, then studied painting in Bologna under the fresco painter Domenico Maria Canuti.

[4] He seems to have returned to sculpture after having left Canuti with the painter Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole and studied at a private school in the Palazzo Fava in Bologna.

[5] Mazza's fully finished terracotta statuettes would have been intended for cabinet display in the homes of wealthy art lovers.

[6] Prince Johann Adam Andreas of Liechtenstein, an art connoisseur, was introduced to Mazza in 1691 by the painter Marcantonio Franceschini.

[11] The church of the Corpus Domini in Bologna has a Virgin and Child and two large angels by Mazza, who also made the bas-reliefs of the high altar.

[7] Between 1686 and 1695 Mazza participated, along with the architect Giacomo Monti (1620-1692) and the painter Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729), in the renovation of the Corpus Domini church in Bologna.

[2] In 1722 he made five large bronze reliefs depicting the miracles of Saint Dominic for the Chapel of San Dominico in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.