Antonio Guardi* (1698-1760)

The Annunciation

Details

Antonio Guardi* (1698-1760)
Guardi, A.
The Annunciation
oil on canvas--oval
37 x 30in. (94 x 77cm.)

Literature

R. Palluchini, I figuristi del Settecento al Palazzo Ducale, in Arte Veneta, 1969, pp. 287-304.
A. Morassi, Altre novit e precisazioni su Antonio e Francesco Guardi, Atti dell'Academia di Udine, 1970, p. 14.
A. Morassi, Antonio e Francesco Guardi, L'Opera completa, 1973, p. no. 24, and II, fig. 26.
L. Dania, Schede Veneziane: Antonio Canaletto, Gian Antonio, Francesco Guardi, Notizie da Palazzo Albani, II, 1973, no. 3.
F. Pedrocco, F. Montecuccoli degli Erri, Antonio Guardi, 1992, p. 132, no. 79, and p. 215, fig. 98.

Exhibited

Venice, XVIIIe, Dal Ricci a Tiepolo, 1969, p. 249, no. 112, illustrated, catalogue by P. Zampetti.
Paris, Venise au XVIII sicle, 1971, no. 61, catalogue by P. Rosenberg.

Lot Essay

This present Annunciation -- the largest known of Guardi's several depictions of the subject -- is close in composition to a version of the subject recorded in a private collection in Venice (see Morassi, op. cit., 1973, p. 311, no. 25, fig. 28). Both that painting and the present work probably derive from an Annunciation by Pietro da Cortona in the Church of San Francesco di Cortona, which Guardi might have known from an engraving. Both Morassi and Rosenberg have dated the present work to 1735-40; Zampetti has dated it to 1742-5; and Pedrocco and Montecuccoli assign it to the beginning of the 1740s.