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Lot Essay
This view on the Grand Canal is unique in Canaletto's work, and stylistically belongs to the period around 1740 when he was unrivalled as a painter of the Venetian scene. For this composition he carefully orchestrated the architecture in order to enhance the event, omitting four or five undistinguished houses on the Fondamenta del Ferro on the right and the lottery booths fronting them, altering the real perspective and putting as much emphasis as possible on the group of figures. The painting's excellent condition, with much of the original impasto surviving, makes a vivid impression of one of the most famous sights of Venice, then as now.
In the opinion of J.G. Links, loc. cit., 'there can be little doubt' that the picture records the visit to Venice of Prince Frederick Christian of Saxony, son of Frederick Augustus III, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu records his stay telling Lady Pomfret in November or December 1739 that 'The Prince of Saxony is expected here in a few days, and has taken a palace exactly over against my house'. He arrived at the end of December 1739, and seems to have stayed until June 10, 1740. In a letter to her husband, Mr. Edward Wortley Montagu, dated December 25, 1739, she writes 'The Electoral Prince of Saxony is here in public, and makes a prodigious expense. His governor (tutor) is Count Wackerbart...'; and again 'The Prince of Saxony stays till the second of May; in the meantime, there are entertainments given him almost every day of one sort or another, and a regatta preparing, which is expected by all strangers with good impatience. He went to see the Arsenal three days ago, waited on by a numerous nobility of both sexes; the Bucentaur was adorned and launched, a magnificent collation given, and we sailed a little way in it...' (The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ed. Lord Wharncliffe, 1898, pp. 53 ff.). The regatta that followed was one of the most memorable of the time. It is possible that the present picture was painted as a gift, perhaps from the Doge Alvise Pisani, to record his stay in Venice, much as the Carlevarijs of the Regatta in honour of the King of Denmark (Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark) was a ricordo of that event. The engraving that Baroni made of that painting is a useful guide to the boats in the present work, for it distinguishes the various kinds that we hear of also from Lady Mary's correspondence. The regatta was 'a race of boats: they are accompanied by vessels which they call Poites, and Bichones, that are built at the expenses of the nobles and strangers that have a mind to display their magnificence'. The gilded peote here are similar to those in Carlevarijs's painting (and in others by Canaletto) of the Arrival of the German Ambassador, Count Colleredo, at the Ducal Palace (1726; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden), and the red, blue and white livery and headdresses of the gondoliers are distinctive. The Regatta itself was an exceptional occasion - a letter of September 4, 1740 from Lady Mary's correspondent in Florence, Lady Pomfret, tells us that it 'has not been seen for near forty years, and is never performed but on the visit of a sovereign prince' (ibid., ed., 1896, pp. 19-23; also quoted at length by Constable, op. cit., II, p. 365). The gilded peote were likewise not ordinary conveyances; conspicuous display of wealth was denied to Venetian citizens, and an edict of 1633 allowed them only black for their gondolas. The Leggi suntuarie, however, allowed foreigners (forastiere d'alieno stato) any colours and materials.
The view extends on the left from the Fondamenta del Vin, with the burchiello - the boat that plied up to Padua along the Brenta - moored alongside, to the Rialto bridge and the corner of the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi. Beyond the Rialto is the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, while this side of the bridge is the Fondamenta del Ferro, leading to the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin, and the bridge of the Rio S. Salvatore.
Comparison with the view, as we know it from the painting by Canaletto in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris (Constable, op. cit., no. 228 (a) I), shows that the artist altered the prospect between the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin and the Rialto, removing two sections of the façades, and placing the campanile of the church of San Bartolomeo behind a different building. This was clearly done in order to 'compose' the view, retaining the impressive architecture by Jacopo Sansovino of the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin, in order to make this and the Rialto bridge itself the foil to the event seen in the center of the composition.
Canaletto painted relatively few works for German patrons although at least six works were painted for Marshal Johann Mathias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747), only one of which is known (see Alice Binion, From Schulenburg's Gallery and Record, Burlington Magazine, 1970, pp. 297-303). Another such patron was Sigismund Streit, who gave his four Canalettos to his old school, the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin (Constable, op. cit., nos. 242, 282, 359 and 360); these were probably painted after 1756. It may well be that the Prince's tutor, Count Wackerbart, had taken his charge to visit the German merchants' emporium, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, as well as the Rialto Bridge and the banking quarter. The early forties was a period when Canaletto's English clients were fewer, the onset of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1741 and the resulting military operations in Italy meant that fewer Grand Tourists braved the journey. Peace did not come until 1748, by which time Canaletto had transferred to England, arriving there in May 1746.
In a Louis XIV carved and gilded frame with strapwork and scrolling acanthus leaves on a cross-hatched ground; sandwork and foliate sight edge.
In the opinion of J.G. Links, loc. cit., 'there can be little doubt' that the picture records the visit to Venice of Prince Frederick Christian of Saxony, son of Frederick Augustus III, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu records his stay telling Lady Pomfret in November or December 1739 that 'The Prince of Saxony is expected here in a few days, and has taken a palace exactly over against my house'. He arrived at the end of December 1739, and seems to have stayed until June 10, 1740. In a letter to her husband, Mr. Edward Wortley Montagu, dated December 25, 1739, she writes 'The Electoral Prince of Saxony is here in public, and makes a prodigious expense. His governor (tutor) is Count Wackerbart...'; and again 'The Prince of Saxony stays till the second of May; in the meantime, there are entertainments given him almost every day of one sort or another, and a regatta preparing, which is expected by all strangers with good impatience. He went to see the Arsenal three days ago, waited on by a numerous nobility of both sexes; the Bucentaur was adorned and launched, a magnificent collation given, and we sailed a little way in it...' (The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ed. Lord Wharncliffe, 1898, pp. 53 ff.). The regatta that followed was one of the most memorable of the time. It is possible that the present picture was painted as a gift, perhaps from the Doge Alvise Pisani, to record his stay in Venice, much as the Carlevarijs of the Regatta in honour of the King of Denmark (Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark) was a ricordo of that event. The engraving that Baroni made of that painting is a useful guide to the boats in the present work, for it distinguishes the various kinds that we hear of also from Lady Mary's correspondence. The regatta was 'a race of boats: they are accompanied by vessels which they call Poites, and Bichones, that are built at the expenses of the nobles and strangers that have a mind to display their magnificence'. The gilded peote here are similar to those in Carlevarijs's painting (and in others by Canaletto) of the Arrival of the German Ambassador, Count Colleredo, at the Ducal Palace (1726; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden), and the red, blue and white livery and headdresses of the gondoliers are distinctive. The Regatta itself was an exceptional occasion - a letter of September 4, 1740 from Lady Mary's correspondent in Florence, Lady Pomfret, tells us that it 'has not been seen for near forty years, and is never performed but on the visit of a sovereign prince' (ibid., ed., 1896, pp. 19-23; also quoted at length by Constable, op. cit., II, p. 365). The gilded peote were likewise not ordinary conveyances; conspicuous display of wealth was denied to Venetian citizens, and an edict of 1633 allowed them only black for their gondolas. The Leggi suntuarie, however, allowed foreigners (forastiere d'alieno stato) any colours and materials.
The view extends on the left from the Fondamenta del Vin, with the burchiello - the boat that plied up to Padua along the Brenta - moored alongside, to the Rialto bridge and the corner of the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi. Beyond the Rialto is the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, while this side of the bridge is the Fondamenta del Ferro, leading to the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin, and the bridge of the Rio S. Salvatore.
Comparison with the view, as we know it from the painting by Canaletto in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris (Constable, op. cit., no. 228 (a) I), shows that the artist altered the prospect between the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin and the Rialto, removing two sections of the façades, and placing the campanile of the church of San Bartolomeo behind a different building. This was clearly done in order to 'compose' the view, retaining the impressive architecture by Jacopo Sansovino of the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin, in order to make this and the Rialto bridge itself the foil to the event seen in the center of the composition.
Canaletto painted relatively few works for German patrons although at least six works were painted for Marshal Johann Mathias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747), only one of which is known (see Alice Binion, From Schulenburg's Gallery and Record, Burlington Magazine, 1970, pp. 297-303). Another such patron was Sigismund Streit, who gave his four Canalettos to his old school, the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin (Constable, op. cit., nos. 242, 282, 359 and 360); these were probably painted after 1756. It may well be that the Prince's tutor, Count Wackerbart, had taken his charge to visit the German merchants' emporium, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, as well as the Rialto Bridge and the banking quarter. The early forties was a period when Canaletto's English clients were fewer, the onset of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1741 and the resulting military operations in Italy meant that fewer Grand Tourists braved the journey. Peace did not come until 1748, by which time Canaletto had transferred to England, arriving there in May 1746.
In a Louis XIV carved and gilded frame with strapwork and scrolling acanthus leaves on a cross-hatched ground; sandwork and foliate sight edge.