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Lot Essay
This previously uncatalogued work is a new addition to a group of paintings by Guardi depicting capricci of the same ruined arch. Within that group, Morassi ( Guardi, Venice, 1973, I, pp. 488-9, nos. 966-71, II, figs. 846, 850, 851-2 and 855) lists six other pictures in which the motif is developed into a four-sided portico-like structure with two open and two closed arches resting on Corinthian columns and supporting a vaulted ceiling, all but one (that in the Mont collection, New York; ibid., no. 967) with the wooden shanty leaning against the side of the structure. Of those six, four are horizontal in format, the exceptions being the Mont picture again, and that in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. 2518).
The National Gallery picture, which is painted on panel and measures 20.1 x 15.5 cm., is particularly close to the present work, although differing in the staffage. In addition, the tomb projecting from the wall on the left side of the composition is substituted by another closed arch, whilst the two poplar trees rising above the wall are removed entirely. Datable to the mid-1770s, the small scale of the London picture (which was originally sold by Giacomo Guardi to a priest from Ancona, from whose representative it was in turn acquired by Lord Farnham in Rome) is considerably more sketchily painted, with fewer subtleties of detail and slightly less dramatic lighting - in part perhaps a reflection of its small size.
It is likely that the design of the arch was inspired by those that form the arcade of the Doge's Palace, Venice.
The National Gallery picture, which is painted on panel and measures 20.1 x 15.5 cm., is particularly close to the present work, although differing in the staffage. In addition, the tomb projecting from the wall on the left side of the composition is substituted by another closed arch, whilst the two poplar trees rising above the wall are removed entirely. Datable to the mid-1770s, the small scale of the London picture (which was originally sold by Giacomo Guardi to a priest from Ancona, from whose representative it was in turn acquired by Lord Farnham in Rome) is considerably more sketchily painted, with fewer subtleties of detail and slightly less dramatic lighting - in part perhaps a reflection of its small size.
It is likely that the design of the arch was inspired by those that form the arcade of the Doge's Palace, Venice.