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Lot Essay
The composition derives closely from a gouache by Marco Ricci, in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle (see A. Scarpa Sonino, op. cit., no. 99).
We are grateful to Dr. Clare Hornsby for the attribution to the architect, artist and theatre designer, Giovanni Nicolò Servandoni. Born either in Florence or Lyon, Servandoni began his career as an artist in circa 1715 in Rome, where he knew the view painter Giovanni Paolo Panini, and was taught drawing and perspective by the architectural engraver Giuseppe Ignazio Rossi. In Rome Servandoni first experienced the elaborate theatre productions and festival architecture that became popular in the eighteenth century and upon which his own fame was later based. By 1724 Servandoni was in Paris, where he became a director of stage design at the Opéra, and in 1728 he became the principal painter and designer to the Académie Royale de Musique. Servandoni's scene painting used angled perspective techniques, in which the vanishing-point is placed to one side of the stage. This technique, which dramatizes the illusion of space, was introduced by the Galli-Bibiena family at the imperial court in Vienna, but it was Servandoni's unique showmanship and imagination that intrigued an otherwise jaded Parisian public, including Diderot, who praised him highly.
In 1729 he contributed, along with Panini, to the festival decorations celebrating the birth of the dauphin, and in 1731 he was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture in his capacity as a painter of ancient ruins. He had modelled his technique in this genre on that of Panini, and he was successful both in meeting the growing Parisian demand for the type and in winning academic acceptance for it. In doing so, he helped create a taste for the work of such artists as Hubert Robert and for the picturesque mock ruins of Romantic landscapes. It has been suggested that this may be one of the two paintings of ruins sold on 28 February 1760 by Langford in Covent Garden, lots 25 and 67, from the collection of the late composer George Frederick Handel, with whom Servandoni collaborated in 1749, producing the set for the first performance of the Music for the Royal Fireworks.
We are grateful to Dr. Clare Hornsby for the attribution to the architect, artist and theatre designer, Giovanni Nicolò Servandoni. Born either in Florence or Lyon, Servandoni began his career as an artist in circa 1715 in Rome, where he knew the view painter Giovanni Paolo Panini, and was taught drawing and perspective by the architectural engraver Giuseppe Ignazio Rossi. In Rome Servandoni first experienced the elaborate theatre productions and festival architecture that became popular in the eighteenth century and upon which his own fame was later based. By 1724 Servandoni was in Paris, where he became a director of stage design at the Opéra, and in 1728 he became the principal painter and designer to the Académie Royale de Musique. Servandoni's scene painting used angled perspective techniques, in which the vanishing-point is placed to one side of the stage. This technique, which dramatizes the illusion of space, was introduced by the Galli-Bibiena family at the imperial court in Vienna, but it was Servandoni's unique showmanship and imagination that intrigued an otherwise jaded Parisian public, including Diderot, who praised him highly.
In 1729 he contributed, along with Panini, to the festival decorations celebrating the birth of the dauphin, and in 1731 he was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture in his capacity as a painter of ancient ruins. He had modelled his technique in this genre on that of Panini, and he was successful both in meeting the growing Parisian demand for the type and in winning academic acceptance for it. In doing so, he helped create a taste for the work of such artists as Hubert Robert and for the picturesque mock ruins of Romantic landscapes. It has been suggested that this may be one of the two paintings of ruins sold on 28 February 1760 by Langford in Covent Garden, lots 25 and 67, from the collection of the late composer George Frederick Handel, with whom Servandoni collaborated in 1749, producing the set for the first performance of the Music for the Royal Fireworks.