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Lot Essay
The present painting is the only known example of a collaboration between Canaletto and Guerra. Links (op. cit.) noted that the painting was at one time signed 'Giuseppe Guerra/A.C.' and inscribed below this 'Guiseppe [sic.] Guerra'. This is no longer clearly visible. Links believed the figures and boats in the present painting to be by Canaletto, and possibly some of the trees on the left horizon.
Dr. Dario Succi, in a letter dated Sept. 25, 1995 (a photocopy of which is sold with this lot) confirms the attribution to Canaletto and Guerra, and believes a much larger part of the painting is by the former artist. As well as seeing Canaletto's hand in almost all of the foreground areas, including the figures ('macchietta'), boats, and city walls, Succi sees his hand in the figures within the city walls, in the trees on the left hand side of the mountain ridge, the top branches of the two pine trees on the shoreline at the extreme right hand edge of the picture, and the flames arising from the stream of lava on the hillside above the city.
Dr. Succi rejects Links's very tentative hypothesis that the present painting is the same as a view of Corfu mentioned in a letter of March 3, 1726 from Alessandro Marchesini to Stefani Conti concerning a commission to Canaletto from General Schulenburg. He dates the present work to circa 1742-4, just prior to Canaletto leaving for England, and believes that the picture shows either a Dalmation or Levant port.
Dr. Dario Succi, in a letter dated Sept. 25, 1995 (a photocopy of which is sold with this lot) confirms the attribution to Canaletto and Guerra, and believes a much larger part of the painting is by the former artist. As well as seeing Canaletto's hand in almost all of the foreground areas, including the figures ('macchietta'), boats, and city walls, Succi sees his hand in the figures within the city walls, in the trees on the left hand side of the mountain ridge, the top branches of the two pine trees on the shoreline at the extreme right hand edge of the picture, and the flames arising from the stream of lava on the hillside above the city.
Dr. Succi rejects Links's very tentative hypothesis that the present painting is the same as a view of Corfu mentioned in a letter of March 3, 1726 from Alessandro Marchesini to Stefani Conti concerning a commission to Canaletto from General Schulenburg. He dates the present work to circa 1742-4, just prior to Canaletto leaving for England, and believes that the picture shows either a Dalmation or Levant port.