Circle of Francesco Guardi (1712-1793)

The Piazza San Marco, Venice, on the Doge's Coronation Day, with the Doge and the Admiral of the Arsenal being carried on the Pozzetto, bearing the Banner of St. Mark, distributing Money to the People

Details

Circle of Francesco Guardi (1712-1793)
The Piazza San Marco, Venice, on the Doge's Coronation Day, with the Doge and the Admiral of the Arsenal being carried on the Pozzetto, bearing the Banner of St. Mark, distributing Money to the People
oil on canvas
22 x 29in. (55.9 x 73.5cm.)

Provenance

Giovanni P. Morosini, and by descent to his daughter, Giulia, by whom presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 1932.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Christie's, New York, May 19, 1993, lot 59 ($35,000).

Literature

H.B. Wehle, Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish and Byzantine Paintings, 1940, p. 276, no. 32.75.5, as circle of Guardi.
B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, 1972, p. 96, as a copy after Guardi.
A. Morassi, Guardi, 1973, I, p. 354, under no. 244 as 'un'antica copia'.
K. Baetjer, European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980, I, p. 82; II, p. 140, illustrated, as an 18th century copy after Guardi.

Lot Essay

After the original in the museum at Grenoble (Morassi, loc. cit.) which forms part of a series of twelve paintings known as 'Le Solennita Dogali' (ibid., I, pp. 354-7; II, figs. 268-84). The series is based on engravings by Giovanni Battista Brustoloni (inscribed 'Antonius Canal pinxit/J.Bap Brustolon inc.'), and as no paintings by Canaletto correspond to this subject, the series is most likely based upon drawings by that artist (see W.G. Constable, ed. J.G. Links, Canaletto, 1989, II, pp. 525ff.). The engravings by Brustoloni were published in 1776 and record the coronation of Doge Alvise IV Mocenigo in 1763. For a further discussion of the series by Guardi, see Morassi, ibid., I, pp. 175ff.