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Lot Essay
This is a characteristic work of about 1760 by Francesco Guardi. The view is taken from in front of the Basilica, the southernmost column of which frames the composition on the left; to the right of this are the Pietra del Bando, from which proclamations were announced, and the columns of Saint Mark and Saint Theodore; seen in diagonal perspective across the Piazzetta are Sansovino’s great Libreria, with to the right part of the Loggetta and behind this a section of the Campanile; across the Bacino is the eastern tip of the Giudecca island, now the site of the Cipriani Hotel.
This is one of a number of canvases of the period that reveal Guardi’s close study of his predecessors, most notably Luca Carlevarijs and Canaletto. As Charles Beddington has observed, the composition here depends on the latter’s etching of the subject ‘la Libreria V’ (W.G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, 2nd ed., revised by J.G. Links, Oxford, 1976, II, p. 656, no. 15, I, pl. 226), but Guardi adjusts his viewpoint to include the column of Saint Mark, which is not shown in the etching.
Guardi was long thought to have turned to painting views by the mid-1740s, but it is now generally accepted that he did not do so until the following decade. That at least three significant English patrons acquired views by him in the late 1750s suggests that the British consul, Joseph Smith, may have had a role in such commissions. Like other painters of his time, Guardi used canvases of standard sizes; roughly 71.3 by 119 cm., 61 by 96.5 cm. and 51 by 86 cm. for those supplied to the three English patrons. This picture is on a smaller scale, measuring approximately 32 by 53.5 cm., conforming to the format of eight other works - six of which are not of ascertainable English provenance and two of which probably are (see F. Russell, ‘Guardi and the English Tourist’, The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVIII, January 1996, pp. 7-8 for specific references).
This is one of a number of canvases of the period that reveal Guardi’s close study of his predecessors, most notably Luca Carlevarijs and Canaletto. As Charles Beddington has observed, the composition here depends on the latter’s etching of the subject ‘la Libreria V’ (W.G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, 2nd ed., revised by J.G. Links, Oxford, 1976, II, p. 656, no. 15, I, pl. 226), but Guardi adjusts his viewpoint to include the column of Saint Mark, which is not shown in the etching.
Guardi was long thought to have turned to painting views by the mid-1740s, but it is now generally accepted that he did not do so until the following decade. That at least three significant English patrons acquired views by him in the late 1750s suggests that the British consul, Joseph Smith, may have had a role in such commissions. Like other painters of his time, Guardi used canvases of standard sizes; roughly 71.3 by 119 cm., 61 by 96.5 cm. and 51 by 86 cm. for those supplied to the three English patrons. This picture is on a smaller scale, measuring approximately 32 by 53.5 cm., conforming to the format of eight other works - six of which are not of ascertainable English provenance and two of which probably are (see F. Russell, ‘Guardi and the English Tourist’, The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVIII, January 1996, pp. 7-8 for specific references).