The Grand Canal, Venice, with Palazzo Foscari and Palazzo Balbi

We are grateful to Dr. Dario Succi for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs. He notes that present picture is a 'bellissima veduta e opera inedita e autografa di Michele Marieschi' and dates it to circa 1737-8 (letter, 25 February 2005). This would make this hitherto unrecorded canvas the first version of the painting of the same view in the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (inv. no. 2609, K.2180), which on stylistic grounds Succi regards as a mature work of circa 1740 (see D. Succi, Marieschi, tra Canaletto e Guardi, exhib. cat. Gorizia, 1989, p. 157, fig. 183; also see R. Toledano, Michele Marieschi, Milan, 1995, p. 109, V.35.c). The two paintings, which are of almost identical size, differ in the arrangement of the boats and figures. As Succi notes, there is a version of the subject, but of smaller dimensions (47 x 87.6 cm.), in a private collection, Milan, which may be dated circa 1739-40 - after the present picture, but before the Raleigh picture.

The attribution of the present picture to Michele Marieschi has also been confirmed by Ralph Toledano, to whom we are also very grateful. He has described the picture as a 'masterpiece' (verbal communication), noting the rich impastos, typical of the artist. Toledano dates the picture to the same period as the Raleigh canvas, and regards the figures in this painting as by Marieschi himself, unlike the figures in the Raleigh view, which he gives to Gian Antonio Guardi. Succi, on the other hand, suggests that the figure style is close to Gaspare Diziani.