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Lot Essay
This view shows one of the most celebrated sights of Venice. The eighteenth-century visitor to the Republic would have sailed down the Grand Canal and, as they approached Baldassare Longhena’s votive church of Santa Maria della Salute, completed in 1681, would have had their first glimpse of the Bacino di San Marco, before landing on the Molo and seeing the great monuments of secular and spiritual Venice, the Doge’s Palace and the Basilica di San Marco. Beyond the church is seen the Dogana, and, across the Bacino, the Riva degli Schiavoni, with the dome of San Zaccaria and the unfinished façade of the Santa Maria della Visitazione (the Pietà). On the horizon are the campaniles of San Giovanni in Bragora, San Martino and San Pietro di Castello (beside its dome), which at the time was the Cathedral of Venice. This view, taken from high up in the abbey of San Giorgio, looking across the Rio della Salute to the Bacino, corresponds very closely with Canaletto’s picture of c.1729-30 in the Royal Collection (Hampton Court). While the figures ascending the steps of the church, thought to be high-ranking Senators, Procurators or Knights, repeat those from Canaletto’s composition, there are various differences in the disposition of the supporting cast of figures in the foreground.
Long considered to be by Canaletto, and by Dario Succi to be by Canaletto with studio assistance (private communication to the present owner) this impressive view of the Grand Canal with Santa Maria della Salute would appear to be by a close associate of the artist. There are stylistic similarities to the hand responsible for a set of Venetian views at Uppark, West Sussex, known as The Uppark Master. These were evidently purchased or ordered in Venice by Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, 1st Bt. (1714-1774), who also acquired sets of pictures by Batoni and Vernet, among others, partly because he had no hereditary collection to which to add. While Canaletto was in Venice on 8 March 1751 and returned to London on 30 July, Fetherstonhaugh was also in the city in July of that year on his return journey from Rome and Naples, making it a possibility that their paths crossed. Fetherstonhaugh was directed by Consul Smith to an accomplished painter, possibly a former pupil or assistant of Canaletto, whose personality has been isolated by Charles Beddington. Versions of two of the Uppark pictures, evidently by the same hand, the Canareggio and the Entrance to the Grand Canal with S. Maria della Salute, were exhibited as by Canaletto, at the Musée Maillol, Paris, Canaletto à Venise, 2012-13, nos. 27-8. A view of the Rialto Bridge, seen from the North (with the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the Fabbriche Vecchie di Rialto), by The Uppark Master, was sold at Christie’s, London, 4 December 2019, lot 281.
Long considered to be by Canaletto, and by Dario Succi to be by Canaletto with studio assistance (private communication to the present owner) this impressive view of the Grand Canal with Santa Maria della Salute would appear to be by a close associate of the artist. There are stylistic similarities to the hand responsible for a set of Venetian views at Uppark, West Sussex, known as The Uppark Master. These were evidently purchased or ordered in Venice by Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, 1st Bt. (1714-1774), who also acquired sets of pictures by Batoni and Vernet, among others, partly because he had no hereditary collection to which to add. While Canaletto was in Venice on 8 March 1751 and returned to London on 30 July, Fetherstonhaugh was also in the city in July of that year on his return journey from Rome and Naples, making it a possibility that their paths crossed. Fetherstonhaugh was directed by Consul Smith to an accomplished painter, possibly a former pupil or assistant of Canaletto, whose personality has been isolated by Charles Beddington. Versions of two of the Uppark pictures, evidently by the same hand, the Canareggio and the Entrance to the Grand Canal with S. Maria della Salute, were exhibited as by Canaletto, at the Musée Maillol, Paris, Canaletto à Venise, 2012-13, nos. 27-8. A view of the Rialto Bridge, seen from the North (with the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the Fabbriche Vecchie di Rialto), by The Uppark Master, was sold at Christie’s, London, 4 December 2019, lot 281.